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Current

THE

EUROPEAN
WAR

VOLUME VIII

JULY — SEPTEMBER, 1916

With Alphabetical and Analytical Index
Illustrations, Maps and Diagrams

NEW YORK
THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

MAY 1 9 1956

Times Square, New York City

INDEX AND TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume VIII.

[This Index constitutes a Table of Contents and an Analytical Index of Authors,

Subject Matter, and Titles.]

ABYSSINIA, 1336.

Adventures of a French Trooper, 892.

AERONAUTICS, views of Prof. Eltzbacher
and of Frankfurter Zeitung on Zeppelin
• raids, 1088.

AFRICA, (Dr.) Paul Leutwein, on Germany's
need of Central Africa, 1031.
See also CAMEROON; CAMPAIGN in
Africa.

AGUILAR, (Sec.) C., 830, 1020.

ALBERT, King of the Belgians, message
from King George, 1119.

ALEXEIEFF, (Gen.) M. V., 1121, 1128.

ALLIES' Economic Conference, speeches of
leading statesman, 923 ; opinions of Sen-
ators Stone and Lodge on effect on Amer-
ican trade, 926 ; text of program, 928.

Allies of the Future, 10G7.

ALSACE - Lorraine, German dependence
on iron mines in Lorraine, 664 ; reunion
with France discussed by Dr. Bornhak,
681 ; restitution to France demanded by
President Poincare, 789 ; F. Bac quotes
conversation of German Emperor before
the war, 1089.

AMERICAN Commission for East Prussian
Relief, 1114.

AMERICAN Foreign Securities Co., 786.

American Note Demanding Redress for Aus-
trian Attack on the PetroHte, 951.

America's Creed of War and Peace, 736.

America's Gifts to War Sufferers, 915.

America's International Relations, 646.

ANDRASSY, (Count) Julius, "The Mistakes
of the Allies," 861.

ANDREYEV, Leonid, appeal for Russian
soldiers, 1074.

Appalling Struggle at Fort Vaiix, 853.

ARABIA, comment on revolution, 785,

ARCHER, William, " The Sin of Color-Blind
Neutrality," reply to Dr. G. Brandes, 900.

ARDOUIN-Dumazet, M., " The Battle of
Verdun," 652, 848- "Battle of the
Somme," 997.

Are Americans Fair to Germany? 701.

ARMAMENTS, see UNITED STATES— De
fenses.

ARMED Merchant Ships, see SUBMARINE
Warfare.

ARREDONDO, Eliseo, 835.

ASQUITH, (Premier) Herbert Henry, com-
ment in House of Commons on Battle of
Skagerrak, 605 ; statement on Fryatt case,
1018; " Britain's Tribute to Belgium," ad-
dress at eighty-fifth anniversary of Bel-
gian independence, 1057.

ATROCITIES, charge against Russians by
Judge Nippert, 1116.

Attack on the Petrolite, 950.

AUSTRlA-Hungary, small number of Gen-
erals captured by Russians, 600; reasons
for movement for separate peace, 789 ; in-
come tax, 922 ; importance of navy at Tri-
este, 982.
See also PETROLITE.

Austrian Offensive Against Italy, 645.

Austrian Reply to Sir Edivard Grey, 859.

AVENEL, (Viscount) Georges d', "High
Cost of Living in Germany," 708.

Vol. VIII

BAC, Ferdinand, "The Kaiser's Attitude
Toward France," 1089.

BAILEY, Daniel J., release, 832.

BAKER, Newton D., mobilization orders, 617.

BALFOUR, Arthur James, " Freedom of the
Seas," 719; "Jutland and the Turn of
the Tide," 1134.

BALKAN States, nationalities discussed by
Dr. Bornhak, 677 ; Serb and Croat rivalry
for Bosnia, discussed by Rev. M. D.
Krmpotic, 1078.

BARNES, John, tables of debts of bellig-
erents, 1141.

BARRES, Maurice, " Significance of the
Word ' Poilu,' " 1039.

BASIN, Thomas, 1071.

BATEMAN, May, 684.

BATOCKI, Adolf von, " England and Polish
Relief," 1064.

BATTISTI, (Dr.) Cesare, 979.

BATTLE Fronts, lengths, 1143.

Battle of Galicia, 1008.

Battle of Jutland Analysed, 939.

Battle of the Somme, 800.

Battle of Verdun, 652, 848.

Bayonet Charge in Picardy, 1053.

BEARXS, (Sergeant) Robert, poem, "In
the Hospital," 760.

BEATTY, (Admiral Sir) David, services in
Skagerrak reported by Admiral Jellicoe,
933 ; report on battle, 934.

BEGBIE, Harold, " Marconi, the Wizard of
the War," 891.

Belgian? under the German Eagle, 676.

BELGIUM, invasion discussed by G. B.
Shaw, 885 ; violation of Hague Conven-
tion discussed by W. E. Church, 868;
tribute by Premier Asquith, 1057.

BELLOC, Hilaire, " Prussian Scorn of Na-
tionalities," 6S2.

BENEDICT XV., see ROMAN Catholic
Church.

BENNETT, Arnold, " The Inside of the Irish
Revolt," 648; "British Protectionists,'
692.

BERENGER, Henri, " The Iron Key to War
and Peace," 665.

BERLIN Tageblatt, article which caused
suppression of, 1058.

BETHMANN Hollweg, (Dr.) Theobald von,
" Peace on a Basis of the Real Facts,"
reply to Sir Edward Grey. 725: discrssi^n
of p"eace on Reichstag, 728 ; reply by Sir
Edward Grey, 730; G. Hirsch on "When
the Chancellor Speaks," 741; comment
of G. B. Shaw on controversy with Sir E.
Grey over Bosnia ; Baron Burian's reply
to Grey, 859; "confession" concerning
Belgium discussed by W. E. Church. 869 ;
attacked by F. Kapp and " Junius Alter,"
110U; reply to attacks, 1109; attack by S.
D. Sazonoff , 1112 ; message from Kaiser,
1118.

Bethmann Hollweg's Peace Plans, 1106.

BIRRELL, Augustine, responsibility for Irish
revolt, announced in report of royal com-
mission, 1024.

BIRTH Rate, birth bounties in France, 786.

BISMARCK, (Prince) Qtto von, criticism by
P. A. Helmer, 1093.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

BLACKLIST, (British), see TRADING with

the Enemy Act.

BLAKELY. (Commander), 950.
BLOCKADE, (British), see ORDER in Coun-

BOLTON, Benjamin Meade, " German Ideal-
ism," 673.

BOOK Reviews, 67G.

BOOTY, captured by Central Powers, lui.

BORNHAK7 (Dr.) Conrad, "The Theory of
Nationalities," 677.

BORSI Giosue, letter to his mother, 1<

BOSNIA, G. B. Shaw on Bethmann Hollweg-
Grey controversy, and Baron Burian a
statement, 859; Austrian annexation dis-
cussed by R. Dobson, 863; Rev. M. D.
Krmpotic on Serb and Croat rivalry, 1078.

BOY AN, M., " The War and German Chris-
tianity," 014.

BOYD, (Capt.) Charles, 834.

BR-VNDES, (Dr.) Georg, "A Plague o Both
Your Houses," 898; reply by W. Archer,

QAA

BRI VXD, Aristide. " Peace Through Vic-
tory Alone," address to Duma, 734; ad-
dress at Allies' Economic Conference, 323.

BRIIH'-E, (Admiral Sir) Cyprian, " Battle of
Jutland Analyzed," 939.

BRIDGES, Robert, poem, "Lord Kitchener,
1117.

BR1EY P.asin, G64, 665.

BRISSET, (Col.), 840.

" British Will Fight It Out," 732.

Britain'* Trials to Come, 687.

Britain's Tribute to Belgium, 1057.

British Deeds in the Critical Year, 1125.

British Offensive, 794.

British Protectionists, 692.

British Semi-Official Story of Great Sea
Fiflht, 606.

BROQUEV1LLE, (Baron) de, speech at
Allies' Economic Conference, 924.

BROWN, Cyril, " With the Germans on the
Somme," 1005.

BRUSILOFF, (Gen.) Alexei, achievements
discussed by C. Johnston, 612; advance,
7SS, 11 2X.

BUDDE, (Prof.), 673.

BUELOW, (Prince) von, comment on war
sympathies in U. S., 845; preface of his
book, " Deutsche Politik," 1040; on the
vitality of France, 1073; failure to de-
fend utterences of the Emperor concern-
ing England in 1908, 1099.

BUKOWINA, sec CAMPAIGN in Europe,
Eastern.

BURIAN, von Rajecz, (Baron), reply to Sir
Edward Grey on Bosnia affair, 859.

Cabinet Ministers on Peace Terms, 725.

CADORNA, (Gen.) Luigi, reorganization Of
Italian Army, 1129.

CAMKRoON, history of colony, 842.
Fee also CAMPAIGN in Africa.

CAMMAERTS, Emile, poem, "Verdun,"
1113.

CAMPAIGN in Africa, 839-842, 981.

CAMPAIGN in Asia Minor, 714, 810, 1083,
112^.

CAMPAIGN in Europe, Austro-Italian Bor-
der, 6:::;, 040, Oil, C>45, 9SS, 992, 994, 1130.

CAMPAIGN in Europe, Eastern, 612, 634, 639,
7M», S(>3, S07, Sll, 9S6, 990, 1008.

CAMPAIGN in Europe, Western, 593, 640,
<;.-•_>, <;:,:), 660, 66.°,, 787, 788, 794, 800, 806,
MO. sir,, S4S sr,:], 9S9, 993, 997, 1005, 1123,
1124.

CAMPBELL, J. H. M., 831.

CANADA, new Gov. Gen., 790.

CARRANZA, (Gen.) Venustiano, see MEX-
ICO.

CARSON, (Sir) Edward, to sit in Dublin
Parliament, 831.

GARY. (Gen.) Langle de, 660.

CASEMENT. (Sir) Roger, account of trial,
831 ; address in his own defense, 832 ; exe-
cution, 1025.

Vol. VIII

CASTELNAU, (Gen.) Edouard de Curier«»

CASUALTIES, in battle of Skagerrak, 593;
602-606; German losses compared with
total losses in other wars in history, by
Gen Duryee, 667 ; men from Portsmouth
lost 'in battle of Skagerrak, 787; estimates
for second year of the war, 1143.
CAUSES of War, German document charg-
ing French violation of Belgian and Ger-
man territory, 593; English part in
discussed by Bethmann Hollweg, 726;
views of Sir E. Grey, 730 ; Count Andrassy
on the mistakes of the Allies, 861 ; events
traced by R. Dobson, 863; responsibility
of Germany discussed by W. E. Church,
868; article by G. Brandes, 898; reply by
W Archer, 900 ; O. S. Straus on the roots
of the war, 908; statement attributed to
M. Harden declaring Germany respon-
sible, 1058; responsibility of Emperor
William, discussed by J. Reinach, 1103;
charges against Germany by Sazonoff, in
reply to Bethmann Hollweg, 1112 ; state-
ment by German Foreign Office, 1130.
CECIL, (Lord) Robert, on blacklist, 1014;
statement on execution of Sir R. Case-
ment, 1026.
CENSORSHIP of Press, attacked by M.

Harden, 1106.

Central Europe — Central Africa, 1031.
CHESTERTON, Gilbert K., " The Man and

the Machine," 631.

Child Races of the World and Peace, 1037.
CHINA, death of Yuan Shih-kai, 594 ; Amer.
participation in loan to, 786; attitude of
Japan discussed by Premier Okuma, 792 ;
Jeopardizing of Amer. commercial inter-
ests by Japan discussed by Dr. Imberg,
1034.

CHOUVAIEFP, (Gen.), 1120.
CHRONOLOGY of the War, 781, 973, 1165.
CHURCH, William E., " Germany Long

Planned the War," 868.

CHURCHILL, (Col.) Winston Spencer, con-
tributions to London Sunday Pictorial,
979.
CLAN-na-Gael, activities discussed by A.

Bennett, 649.
CLASS (M.), 1094, 1101.
CLEMENTEL, (M.), statement at Allies'

Economic Council, 924.
COHEN, Lily Young, poem, " Kitchener's

Grave," 911.
COLLINS (Prof.), 922.

COLONIZATION, status of native races dis-
cussed by J. H. Harris, 1037.
COMMERCE, L. Luzzatti on trade problems
confronting the Allies, 685; A. Hurd on
menace of Germany after the war, 689 ;
Dr. Helfferich on post-bellum trade, 690;
effect of British blockade on German
trade after the war discussed by Viscount
d'Avenel, 709; "Trade War Against Ger-
many," by P. Heineken, 929.
See also 'SHIPPING; TARIFF; TRAD-
ING with the Enemy Act.
Comparison That Shoivs the Huge Cost of the

War, 668.
CONSPIRACIES, see GERMAN and Austro-

Hungarian Conspirators.
CONSTANTINE I., King of Greece, 599.
CONTRABAND of War, new British order,

793.
CORNWALL, John Travers, mentioned in

report of Admiral Jellicoe, 933.
COSSACKS, destructiveness discussed by

Judge Nippert, 1115.

COST of War, compared with preceding
wars, by E. Thery, 668 ; discussion by M.
Harden, 700; contributions of British colo-
nies, 787 ; cost to Russia, 875 ; tables by J.
Barnes showing debts of countries af-
fected by the war, 1141.
See also FINANCES.
COURTNEY, Royle E., 821.
Creating the British Army, 669.
CROATIANS, 1078.
CROMER (Lord). "Wilson's Mediation Not

Acceptable," 738.
CUNLIFFE (Col.), 840.

INDEX AND TABLE OF CONTENTS

in-

DANISH West Indies, 976.
Day in a German War Prison, 888.
DEFENSES, see UNITED States — Defenses.
DELCASSE, Theophile, 1090.
DEMOCRATIC Party, see PRESIDENTIAL

Campaign.
DESCHANEL, Paul, " The Germans and

Science," 1059.
DEUTSCHLAND (Submarine), arrival at

Baltimore and statement of Capt. Koenig,

828.

DEVONSHIRE, Duke of, career, 790.
DILLON, (Dr.) E. J., " We Are Not Winning

This War," 705.

DOBSON, Richard, " Lest We Forget," 863.
DONALDSON, (Sir) Frederick, 611.
DRUGS, increase in prices, 1144.
DUBLIN, see IRELAND.
DUKE. Henry Edward, 1022.
DUMONT-Wilden, L., " Flemish Culture Is

Not German," 710.

DURYEE, (Gen.) Jacob Eugene, on casual-
ties, 667.
DUSHAN, Stephen, 1079.

ECONOMIC Conference, see ALLIES' Eco-
nomic Conference.
EDUCATION, criticism of British system,

977.

ELLERSHAW (Brig. Gen.), 611.
ELTZBACHER (Prof.), on Zeppelin raids,

1088.

Empire Day Message, 735.
Ending Barbarous Warfare, 912.
ENGLAND :—

Admiralty, report of battle of Skagerrak,
603-605; statement on death of Lord
Kitchener, 611.

Army, Kitchener's achievements leading to
military conscription, 669; achieve-
ments during second year of war, 1126.
Cabinet, inefficiency discussed by Dr. E.
J. Dillon, 706; changes caused by death
of Kitchener, 783.

Colonies, contributions to cost of war, 787.
Finances, eleventh vote of war credit, 595 ;
total amount of votes of credit, 787 ;
loan from Amer. bankers, 9SO.
Food supply, increase in prices, 786.
Foreign relations, discussed by Bethmann

Hollweg, 726.

Labor, Dr. A. Shadwell on problems after
the war, 687 ; Dr. Lensch on the work-
ing classes in the war, 872 ; Walter
Long's report on pauperism, 977.
Navy, strength at beginning of 1916, 592;
diminution of strength not accepted
by England in possible peace terms,
738; present strength, 984; accomplish-
ments during second year of war,
stated by Sir G. Parker, 1125; losses
during year, by Admiral von Holtzen-
dorff, 1132.

See also SKAGERRAK, Battle of.
United States, Relations with, see under

UNITED States.
England and Polish Relief, 1064.
England's Purpose Regarding Germany, 1030.
England's Seizure of Mails, 716.
Episode in No Man's Land, 1041.
ERZERUM, see CAMPAIGN in Asia Minor.
EUCKEN, Rudolf, 675.

Fate of Lord Kitchener, 611.

FAVER1E, A. Schalck de la, " Germans In

the U. S.," 877.
FERRERO, Guglielmo, " War's Effect on

the Upper Classes," 846.

Fifty Billions, Cost of Tivo Years' War, 1141.
FINANCES', Amer. participation in Chinese

and French loans, 786 ; tables showing

debts of belligerents, 1141.

See o.lso COST of War and under names

of various countries.
FIRTH, J. B., 669.
FITZGERALD, O. A., 611.
Flemish Culture Is Not German, 710.

Vol. VIII

FOODSTUFFS, A. von Batocki discusses
England's atitude toward Polish relief.
1064.

FRANCE, Anatole, " France and. Italy Re-
united." 844.

FRANCE, devastation of communes, 920;
article by E. Lavisse showing recovery
from three wars, 1070; message of Pres.
Poincare' on second anniversary of out-
break of war, 1119; message of Gen.
Joffre to army, 1120.

France and Italy Reunited, 844.

FRANCIS, Ferdinand, (Archduke), assassi-
nation discussed by R. Dobson, 863.

FRANCIS Joseph, Emperor of Austria, dis-
asters in life, 599.

FREE Trade, see TARIFF.

FREEDOM of the Seas, see SEAS.

French 75s: The Guns That Defend Ver-
dun, 709.

FROUDE, James A., account of uprising in
Ireland under Perkin Warbeck, 785.

FRY ATT, (Capt.) Charles, 1017, 1104.

GALICIA, graveyards on battlefields, 867;
batle of, 1008.
See also CAMPAIGN in Europe, Eastern.

GALSWORTHY, John, " Those Whom the
War Has Broken," 902.

GARDINER, J. B. W., " Month's Military
Developments," 633, 806, 986.

GAS BOMBS, 912, 1049.

GEORGE V., King of England, message to
fleet after Battle of Skagerrak, 609 ; mes-
sage to heads of Entente States on second
anniversary of war ; message to King of
Belgium, 1119,

GERARD, James Watson, 1018.

German Admiralty's Official Report of Bat-
tle of the Skagerrak, 941.

GERMAN and Austro-Hungarian Conspir-
ators, views of M. Harden, 695.

German Defeat Through Exhaustion, 883.

German Deeds on the High Seas, 1132.

German Emperors' Appeal to His People,

German ex-Chancellor's Comment on Amer-
ican War Sentiment, 845.
German Flame Throioers in Action, 1049.
German Idealism, 673.
GERMAN National Committee, 1060.
German Peril After the War, 6S9.
German Scholars Explain Their Manifesto,

876.

German Semi-Official Narrative, 608.
German War Losses the Greatest in His-
tory, 667.

German War Profit Tax, 921.
Germans and Science, 1059.
GERMANS in America, views of M. Har-
den, 694; article by A. S. de la Fa-
verie, 877.

Germans in Ireland, 785.
GERMANY :—

Admiralty, report of North Sea battle,
603-605 ; abstract of report on Jutland
battle, 941.

Army, increase immediately before the
war, and official reports discussed by
W. E. Church, 868 ; reply of Bethmann
Hollweg to charge of holding back mo-
bilization, 1110.
Colonies, need of Central Africa discussed

by Dr. P. Leutwein, 1031.
Economic Conditions, needs discussed bv

Dr. P. Leutwein, 1031.

Expansion, opinion of H. Muensterberg,
1069; P. A. Helmer on the Pan-Ger-
manist League, 1092.

Food Supply, effect of British blockade
discussed by Viscount G. d'Avenel,
708 ; article by Dr. Michaelis, 878 ; pub-
lic dining halls, 978 ; problem of feed-
ing conquered territory, discussed by
A. von Batocki, 1064; administration
attacked by F. Knapp, 1107.
Government, attacks by F. Knapp and
" Junius Alter " discussed by M.
Harden, 1106.

iv.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

Labor, " War a Cure for Strikes," 595.
Navy, strength at beginning of 1916, 592;
present strength, 984; achievements
during second year of war stated by
Capt. Persius, 1133; views of A. J.
Balfour, 1134.
See also SKAGERRAK, Battle of;

SUBMARINE Warfare.
Preparedness for War, discussed by W.

E. Church, 868.
Reichstag, G. Hirsch on " When the

Chancellor Speaks," 741.
Socialists, see SOCIALISTS.
Taxes, Dr. P. Marcuse on war profit tax,

921.

United States, Relations with, see SUB-
MARINE Warfare.

Germany and the Lorraine Iron Mines, 666.
Germany Long Planned the War, 868.
Germany's Only Direct Neivs Conn ction with

the American Continent, 610.
Germany's Shortage of Daily Bread, 878.
GIBBON, Perceval, " What the War Has

Done to Petrograd," 896.

GIBBS, Philip, " The British Offensive," 794.
GLASGOW Herald, 606.
GORIZIA, fall of, 994.

See also CAMPAIGN in Europe, Western.

STANDARD Oil Co., see PETROLITE.

STANDARD Underground Cable Co., 724.

STEEL, Flora Annie, " The Heart Cry of
England's Women," 881.

STILGEBAUER, Edward, " Lament of the
Messiah of Flanders," 1055.

STOCKS, E., 827.

STONE, William J., apprehensions concern-
ing Allies' Economic Conference, 926.

" Stonewalling in France/' 1124.

Story of a Russian War Prisoner, 1046.

STRAUS, Oscar S., " Rebuilding the Founda-
tions of International Peace," 905.

STURMER, (Premier) B. V., 1121.

SUBMARINE Warfare, views of M. Har-
den, 694; "Tales of the Trade," by R.
Kiphng, 817; execution of Capt. Fryatt
for attempting to ram German subma-
rine, 1017 ; statement of German Foreign
Office, 1131.
See also SHIPPING.

SUKHOMLINOFF, Vladimir, 1075.

SWING, Silas Q., 823.

SZATMARI, Eugene, " The Gas Attack,"
1049.

Tales of " The Trade," 817.

TARIFF, L. Luzzatti on problems confront-
ing the Allies, 685; A. Hurd on danger of
"dumping" by Germany, 689; A. Ben-
nett on British protectionists, 692.

Vol. VIII

TERRITORY Occupied, Teuton gains and
losses, 975 ; German official figures, 1121 ;
area, 1143.

Theory of Nationalities, 677.

THERY", Edmond, 668.

Those Whom the War Has Broken, 903.

THURSTON, Violetta, on refugees from Rus-
sian Poland, 1036.

TIRPITZ, (Grand Admiral) Alfred von, mes-
sage of thanks from Kaiser after battle
of Skagerrak, 610.

TISZA, (Count) Stephen, on peace, 742.

TITTONI, M., 844.

" Too Proud to Fight," 718.

TRADE, see COMMERCE.

" Trade, The," poem, 817.

Trade Problems Confronting the Allies, 685.

Trade War Against Germany, 929.

TRADING with the Enemy act (British),
editorial comment, 785 ; extent of black-
list, 1014; U. S. protest, 1015.

TREBIZOND, see CAMPAIGN in Asia
Minor.

TRENCHES, horrors of fighting, by Romeo
Houle, 748.

Trend of Events in Asia Minor, 714.

TREVINO, (Gen.) Jacinto B., orders tc»
Amer. troops, 834, 835.

Trieste and the Austrian Fleet, 982.

TROELTSCH, Ernst, " The Spirit of Ger-
man Culture," 707.

Two Explanations of the Battle of Jutland,
1136.

Two Irish Mothers, 871.

2,500 War Dogs Helping to Save Wounded
Germans. 704.

ULSTER, see IRELAND.
Under the Sea of Marmora, 820.
UNITED STATES :—

Army, mobilization of National Guard for
border service, 616; number of men in
border patrol, 835.

Austria-Hungary, Relations with, see
PETROLITE.

Defenses, plank in Democratic platform,
647; warning by French pacifist, 880;
views of O. S. Straus, 907 ; defense
program as agreed upon by House and
Senate, 978.

England, Relations with, editorial com-
ment on blacklist, 785 ; extent of black-
list, 1014; U. S. protest against black-
list, 1015.

Foreign Relations, planks in party plat-
forms, 646; discussed by Sec. Lansing,
T 39.

Germany, Relations with, M. Harden's
article, " If I Were Wilson," 693; com-
ment by Prince von Buelow on Amer.
war sympathies, 845.
See also SUBMARINE Warfare.

Japan, Relations with, problems discussed
by Dr. K. E. Imberg, 1033.

Navy, present strength, 984.
Uncultured Deeds of E-l!t, 825.
URSINS, Jean Juvenal des, 1071.
"Utterance That Caused the Suppression of (t

Berlin Newspaper, 1058.

VALLI, Eugenia, " Within What Limits the
Pope Can Be Admitted to the Peace Con-
gress," 711.

VENIZELOS, Eleutherios, on issue at stake
in Greece, 985.

VERDUN, see CAMPAIGN in Europe,
Western.

Verdun, poem, 1113.

VICTOR Emmanuel III., King of Italy, at
the front, 895.

VIENNA, Congress of, 677.

VILLA, (Gen.) Francisco, see MEXICO.

Vitality of France, 1070.

Vivid Story of an Eyewitness, 945.

WAR, effect on upper classes discussed by G..

Ferrero, 846.
War and German Christianity, 914.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

War Events from Two Viewpoints, 633, 806,
986.

War, Peace, and the Future, 882.

WARBECK, Perkin, 7S5.

War's Effect on National Character, 684.

War's Effect on Prices in the United States,
1143.

Wars Effects on the Upper Classes, 846.

WASHBURN, Stanley, "French 75s: The
Guns That Defend Verdun," 709.

WATT, Lauchlan MacLean, " Heroism and
Pathos of the Front," 886.

" We Are Not Winning This War," 705.

WEBB-Bowen (Major), 840.

WEHBERG, (Dr.) Hans, 1019.

WELLS, Herbert George, selection from
" What Is Coming? " on German defeat,
883.

What Germany Has Lost in the Cameroonaf
842.

What Is Militarism f 1027.

What the War Has Done to Petrograd, 896.

WJiat T/iis War Means to France, 615.

" When the Chancellor Speaks," 741.

Who Is Responsible for the War? 1112.

Why Peace Talk at Present Is Idle, 730.

Why Verdunf 663.

WILLIAM II., Emperor of Germany, address
at Wilhelmshaven congratulating navy on
Skagerrak achievements, 609; messages
to von Tirpitz and von Koester, 610; atti-
tude toward France reviewed by F. Boc,
los9 : domination of his acts by Pan-Ger-
manist League discussed by P. A. Helmer,
1<)92 ; responsibility for war discussed by J.
Roinach, 1103; appeal to people, 1104;
sermon to army chaplains, 1105 ; message
to Pres. Wilson and description of a visit
to, by Judge Nippert, 1114 ; proclamation

to naval and military forces at close of
second year of war ; message to Bethmann
Hollweg, 1118.

WILSON, (Pres.) Woodrow, facts about
" being too proud to fight," 718; " Amer-
ica's Creed of War and Peace," address
to League to Enforce Peace, 736 ; rejec-
tion of idea of mediation, by Lord Cromer,
738 ; comment of Premier Okuma on policy
toward China, 792.

Wttson'8 Mediation Not Acceptable, 738.

WIMBORNE (Baron), resignation with-
drawn, 1022.

WIRELESS Telegraphy, station at Sayville
only means of uncensored communication
with Germany, 610.

With the Germans on the Somme, 1005.

Within What Limits the Pope Cam Be Ad-
mitted to the Peace Congress, 711.

WITTMAACK, H., " England's Seizure of
Mails," 716.

WOMEN, invasion of fields of labor, 784;
" Heart Cry of England's Women," by F.
A. Steel, 881; views of French women pa--
cifists on possibility of decisive victory,
916; occupation in Russia, 1076.

WOOL, British and French regulation Of
trade, 979.

Working Classes in the War, 872.

WORLD Events of the Month, 591; 783; 975.

Tear of the War in Italy, 641.
YUAN Shih-kai, death, 594.

ZEPPELINS, see AERONAUTICS.
ZIMMERMANN, (Dr.) Alfred F. M.,

About British Militarism?" 702.

How

Portraits

ANASTASIA (Grand Duchess), 1118.

AOSTA, Duke of, 990.

BEATTY, (Admiral Sir) David, 606.

BENNETT, Arnold, 648.

B< 'SELLI, Paola, 975.

BRUSILOFF, (Gen.) Alexei A., 622.

CAI.)ORNA, (Gen.) Luigi, 638.

CAPELLE, (Admiral) von, 606.

DEVONSHIRE. Duke of, 111!).

FRY ATT, (Capt.) Charles, Iul7.

CREY. (Sii-) Edward, 7s:;.

HARDEN, Maximilian, (593.

HERTZENDORF, (Baron) Conrad von, 038.

HINDENBURG, (Field Marshal) Paul von,

1022.
HOOD, (Admiral) Horace, 606.

HOULE, Romeo, 749.
HUGHES, Charles Evans, 734.
JELLICOE, (Admiral Sir) John, 606.
KIPLING, Rudyard, 863.
KITCHENER (Earl), 591.
KOENIG, (Capt.) Paul, 830.
LETCHITSKY (Gen.), 1054.
LI Yuan-hung, 735.
LINSTNGEN, (Gen.) von, 831.
MUENSTERBERG, Hugo, 1067.
NICHOLAS II., Czar of Russia, 926.
NIVELLE, (Gen.), 1055.
SCHEER, (Admiral) Reinhard, 1023.
STRAUS, Oscar, 904.
WALES, Prince of, 862.

Illustrations

AEROPLANE Flying Over the North

Sea, 71S.

ARMoPJ-:n Automobiles, 623.
ARTIFICIAL Limbs in Use, 1102.
BATTLING Amid Eternal Snows, 975.
BRITISH Scouts in Peril, 910.
CANADIANS at Ypres, from painting by W.

B. Wollen, t>7o.

CZAR Greeting His Troops 926
DEUTSCHLAND, (Submarine), 830.
GALLIENI, (Gen.) J. S., funeral, 910.
GUN, now French 10-inch, 1000
KITCHENER, Memorial Service, 783.

LEMBFRG, 926.

" MATER Dolorosa Belgica," from painting

by F. Brangwyn, 686.

RELIEF Work, with wounded in Alps, 1103.
RUSSIAN Troops in Marseilles, 719.
RUSSIAN Types in Buckowina Drive, 1071.
SHELL, 16-inch, 1007.
SPIRIT of Indomitable France at Verdun,

from painting by Simont, 671.
SUBMARINE Mine-layer, 1103.
VERDUN, 6S6, 1070.
WARSHIPS, British, 606.
WOMEN at work in England, 878, 879.

AFRICA, German colonies. 840.
ASIA Minor Campaign, 10S4
BOSNIA and Herzegovina, 10«?1.

635; 812'

Map:

9S7'

ITALIAN Campaign, 642, 995.

Vol. VIII

MEXICO, Villa Punitive Expedition, 815.

SKAGERRAK, 591, 937, 1136-1139.

SOMME. Battle of the, 999.

VERDUN, 814.

VOLH7NIA and Galfcia, Russian Drive, 635.

WESTERN Campaign, 807, 80S.

Cartoons

761-780, 953-972, 1145-1164.

EARL KITCHENER OF KHARTUM

Britain's Famous War Secretary, Who Perished With His Staff on the

Cruiser Hampshire, June 5, When on His Way to Russia

(Photo by Press Illustrating Co.)

GREAT NORTH SEA BATTLE, MAY 31, 1916

This Perspective Diagram, Drawn From Cabled Data, Is Intended to Show

the Locale of the Battle Ralher Than to Picture Its Events. The Cross Nr-ar

the Orkney* Marks the Place Where Lord Kitchener Perished

(^ 1010 ffrjr Ynrlt Time* Company.)

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

THE EUROPEAN WAR

Period July, 1916 — September, 1916

INTRODUCTION

THE great offensives in the western
and eastern theatres of the war
were the chief events of major
importance during the Summer of
1916. In every direction the Generals
strove to force the issue to a decision
so that there should be no need for a
campaign in the following Summer. But
neither side was able to establish so
great a military superiority. In June
the Russian drive began, and a few weeks
later the British and French Armies
opened their offensive on the Somme.
Then, just before the close of the period
under review, an entirely new develop-
ment was introduced into the course of
events by Rumania's entry into the war.
At the same time Italy, so far at war
only with Austria-Hungary, broke with
Germany, so that the alignment of the
nations into two opposing camps became
still more pronounced. Nor was it only
declarations of war, the beginning of
new and more terrible compaigns, and
generally the area of conflict that bore
evidence to the determination of the two
groups of belligerents to cripple and
crush one another, but also in the sphere
of economic activity and diplomacy there
were such notable changes enacted or
foreshadowed as those dealt with at the
Allies' economic conference or involved
in the abandonment of the Declaration
of London and in the treaty between
Russia and Japan.

In the previous volume we have seen
that the struggle for Verdun was still
in progress. Little remains to be added,
except that after the bombardment of
Fort Vaux, which began on May 31, and

Vol. VIII

which completely cut off the garrison
from the French Army, the gallant com-
mander, Major Raynal, had to yield the
fort on June 6. One more offensive was
carried out by the Germans. Beginning
an attack along a front of three miles,
.they threw 100,000 men against Ridge
321, Thiaumont work, and Fleury, and
on June 23 captured the Thiaumont posi-
tion. Two days later they were also
successful at Fleury, but a vigorous
counteroff ensive held them in check. And
at this stage the battle of Verdun ended,
for the British had already begun their
terrific bombardment on the Somme and
the Germans needed all the men and
guns they could spare to resist the " big
push " in that region.

The battle of the Somme actually be-
gan on June 27, when the British opened
artillery fire all along the front from
the Somme to the Yser. For five days
the bombardment was kept up, and then
on July 1 the movement forward began,
the British aiming at Bapaume and the
French at Peronne in an attempt to es-
tablish a hold on the ridge which runs
from Thiepval to Combles. The British
succeeded on the opening day of the drive
in breaking through on a twenty-mile
front and capturing a number of posi-
tions on both banks of the Ancre and to
the north of the Somme. The French
also had a force on the north of the
Somme, as well as on the south, where
they were chiefly concentrated and where
they rapidly moved ahead three miles
on a six-mile front. From July 1 to July
10 the fighting was almost continuous
by day and night. The Allies had great

ii.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

advantages in superior artillery, an
enormous supply of ammunition, and
greater numbers of troops who were
better equipped and better provisioned.
Their airplanes were particularly numer-
ous and effective. It was, therefore, to
be expected that the Germans would be
driven back. Nevertheless, the resistance
was very obstinate, demonstrating the
amazing military capacity which made
the German war machine no easy thing
to smash. In his report on the first
phase of the battle General Haig stated
that the British had taken the German
first line along a front of eight miles,
a considerable number of guns, and 7,500
prisoners. The French had also captured
several thousand prisoners.

The second phase of the battle began
on July 14 with an attack by the Allies
on the German second-line trenches.
Both the British and French made head-
way, taking many guns and several thou-
sand more prisoners. At some points
the Germans, who had been reinforced,
made a determined stand and delivered
counterattacks, but they soon lost the
positions they retook. On July 22 oc-
curred the big fight for Pozieres. The
British attacked all along the front from
that village to Guillemont, taking Po-
zieres itself on July 26. German second-
line trenches along a five-mile front
were now in the possession of the Brit-
ish. Although the major offensive of the
Allies was that conducted by the British,
the French on their portion of the front
were advancing steadily, and their at-
tacks were of considerable importance.
The German lines were now badly bent
back by the British, who kept on widen-
ing the line of attack as well as pushing
it forward. The fighting was frequently
as fierce and deadly as the terrible
struggles at Verdun had been, and both
sides lost men by thousands and tens
of thousands from day to day. The be-
ginning of August saw the British gain-
ing possession of more of the German
second-line trenches north of Pozieres
and the French advancing north of the
Somme. The Germans were in very
strong positions at Thiepval, Martin-
puich, Guillemont, and Maurepas, and
until they could be driven from them the

allied advance would be held back. Hence
the furious battles fought for these vil-
lages. On Aug. 11 and 12 Maurepas
was attacked by the French and British,
but it took till Aug. 24 before the Ger-
mans were forced out. Meanwhile, on
Aug. 12, the French had attacked the
German third line on a four-mile front
from east of Hardecourt to the Somme,
and reached positions nearly three-quar-
ters of a mile beyond. Many prisoners
were captured. The British also moved
forward past the German third lines on
a six-mile front. At the end of August
the British had taken nearly 16,000 pris-
oners, nearly 100 field guns, and over
150 machine guns. During the month
the British losses in killed, wounded, and
missing were 4,711 officers and 123,234
men. The rate of the Allies' advance
was a few thousand yards every few
days, which, considering the territory
still held by the Germans, was slow; fur-
thermore, though the Germans were
being gradually pushed back and a wedge
driven in their front, the line was still
intact. The outlook, therefore, was that
the allied offensive of 1916 would not be
decisive, and this proved to be so despite
the further gains by the Allies to be re-
corded in the next volume.

The Russian drive which began in June
was one of the most remarkable suc-
cesses of the Allies up to that time. It
was part of the general program of
simultaneous offensives in all theatres of
the war, and it did much by preventing
reinforcements from being drawn away
to help the British and French armies in
the west and the Italians who had been
worsted by the Austrians. The Russian
forces were now nominally under the su-
preme command of the Czar in place of
the Grand Duke Nicholas, who had been
sent to the Caucasus; but the real direc-
tion was in the hands of the new Chief
of Staff, General Alexeieff, assisted by
General Ivanoff. The Russians attacked
on the whole front from the Gulf of Riga
to the Rumanian frontier, but the main
offensive was that led by General Brusi-
loff on the sector of 250 miles from the
Pripet southward in the three regions of
Volhynia, of Buczacz, and between the
Dniester and the Pruth. Of these the

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

iii.

first and last named were the more im-
portant. The drive began on June 4, and
was immediately successful. Lutsk in
Volhynia was taken on June 6, and the
Russians began to press forward on
Kovel, one of the chief objectives of the
advance, reaching the Rivers Styr and
Ikva at various points on June 8. The
same day Dubno, at the south of the
salient which the Russians had now
pushed into the Teutonic lines, was taken.
During the next five days they occupied
positions eighteen miles southwest of
Dubno and eighteen miles west of Lutsk.
By June 16 the new salient had a radius
of forty-five miles. The Austro-Ger-
mans replied with a counterattack and
forced the Russians back about five miles.
A pause in the fighting ensued, and then
a fresh effort from June 24 to the end of
the month.

Meanwhile, the Russians had been
pressing onward south of the Dniester
and forcing the Austrians to fall back
on the Carpathian passes. On June 16
the Russians began crossing the Pruth,
and next day they captured Czernowitz,
after which they rapidly overran practi-
cally the whole of Bukowina, the conquest
of which was complete by June 23.
Kolomea, an immediate objective 'of the
Russian drive, was taken on June 29.
The offensive in the Buczacz sector pro-
ceeded successfully. The town of Buczacz
was occupied on June 8, and a halt was
then called, while the Russians advanced
south of the Dniester. In all this fight-
ing the Russians were daily taking
thousands and tens of thousands of pris-
oners, and with them vast quantities of
artillery, ammunition, and war material
of all kinds. The Russians swept for-
ward like a floodtide, and only at a few
points were they momentarily checked.
The Austrian armies suffered heavy
losses and depreciated considerably in
morale. At the end of June the change
that had come over the scene was evi-
denced by the two salients which the
Russians had driven in the Austro-Ger-
man lines, one in Volhynia and the other
in Bukowina.

Galicia became the principal battle
area in the next phase of the Russian
campaign. On the resumption of the of-

Vol. VIII

fensive the Austro-Hungarian army on
the Styr was driven back along a forty-
mile front to the Stokhod, with the re-
sult that the Russian line was straight-
ened and made even with the advance
line of the Lutsk salient. On July 16
the Russians began a tremendous attack,
which continued till July 22, when they
crossed the Lipa and the Austrians be-
gan to retire from Brody, which was
captured on July 28. The next move by
the Russians was to cut the Krasne-
Tarnopol railroad on a front of fifty
miles. This operation was initiated on
Aug. 4 and progressed so well that an
advance which the Germans had been
planning was rendered impossible. In
the southern battle area the Austrians,
whose positions extended from Niezvisha
to the Carpathians, were driven back on
June 28, and on the following day, as
already mentioned, Kolomea was taken.
The Russians then captured positions
further south. A German attempt to
create a diversion by means of a counter-
offensive proved abortive, and the Aus-
trians kept on retiring. On July 8 the
Russians took Delatyn and cut the rail-
road which runs through the Jablonica
Pass in the Carpathians. The Russians
next turned their attention to the Ger-
man army in -Galicia, capturing Tlu-
match on Aug. 7 and Stanislau on Aug.
10, and, what was more important, cut
the German communications with the
Transversal Railway through Galicia.
On Aug. 10 another Russian force crossed
the Zlota Lipa near Nizhnioff. Owing
to these and other successes, the Ger-
mans were forced to retire on Aug. 12
from the Stripa to the Zlota Lipa, but,
with von Hindenburg's arrival to take
supreme command of the entire Austro-
German campaign in the east, the Rus-
sians began to encounter a far more
determined defensive, which had for its
purpose the protection of Kovel and
Lemberg, and the holding of the Car-
pathians. A deadlock ensued, followed
by an intermission in the operations,
which lasted until the end of the period
under review.

But this does not dispose of all the
fighting on the eastern front. To pre-
vent the Germans from sending rein-

iv.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

forcements from the northern section of
the line the Russians had also attacked
along the Dvina and the Niemen, and
at several points made considerable prog-
ress. The severest battle north of the
Pripet was that fought around Barano-
vitche between June 13 and July 9.
When the eastern campaign came to a
standstill at the end of August the Rus-
sians had taken during the three months
400,000 prisoners and occupied 7,000
square miles of territory. The effect on
the Central Empires was a great deal
more damaging than the western offen-
sive during the Summer, and the mili-
tary power of Austria-Hungary espe-
cially had seriously declined.

We saw in the last volume how the
Austrians by suddenly launching a well-
prepared offensive in the Trentino had
forced the Italians to retire, and how
General Cadorna had to bring up heavy
reinforcements to hold the Austrians.
His aim was now that of the French at
Verdun— to keep the enemy occupied un-
til the Russians began their great drive.
He had not long to wait, and in the first
days of June the Italians were able to
stop the Austrian offensive all along the
line. The Austrians were obliged to
withdraw troops to serve against the
Russians and, after a series of infantry
attacks and bombardments between June
2 and June 17, to cease their offensive
operations altogether. The Italians were
now ready to go forward once more, and
by June 25 the Austrians were in re-
treat, losing large numbers of men who
were taken prisoner and many machine
guns. The Austrian drive in May had
dislocated Italy's plan to begin an of-
fensive simultaneously with those of the
Allies in the other theatres of the war;
so that it was not until August that Gen-
eral Cadorna was able to resume opera-
tions on the Ison/.o front. This offensive
was launched on Aug. 6 with Gorizia
once more the objective. The positions
on and between Mount Sabotino and
Mount San Michcle were taken without
delay. On Aug. 8 the lines outside
Gorizia were carried and the town itself
occupied the following day. The Italians
then swept across the Vallone, which di-
vides the Doberdo plateau from the

Vol. VIII

Carso, but soon the offensive began to
slow down, and on Aug. 17 it was at an
end. Although the Italians had gained
possession of Gorizia, the Austrian guns
were still within range. During the
offensive the Italians took about 15,000
prisoners.

The Franco-British army at Saloniki
was reinforced during this period by
Serbian, Russian, and Italian troops. The
Serbians attacked the Bulgarians at the
Karadjova (Moglena) Mountains on July
14, and captured a series of fortified
heights. But the Macedonian campaign
did not really begin till the latter part
of August, when the Bulgarians advanced
and captured Fiorina, sixteen miles from
Monastir, on Aug. 17, Demir-Hissar on
Aug. 18, and some positions west of the
Struma on Aug. 19. The Allies opened
their offensive all along the line on Aug.
20, but no fighting of importance oc-
curred till the period covered in the
next volume. An episode of the cam-
paign, which was connected with the
curious attitude of Greece, was the oc-
cupation on Aug. 25 by Bulgarians and
Germans of the Greek seaport town of
Kavala and the surrender of the Fourth
Greek Army Corps, which was sent to
Germany and there interned.

In Northern Africa, Asiatic Turkey,
and the countries bordering on British
India, German military officers and dip-
lomatic agents had been either organizing
fighting forces or attempting to stir up
revolt. For this reason the Russians
were compelled to conduct a campaign in
Persia, where a body of Turks and rebel
Persians led by Germans and Austrians
were reinforced by Turkish troops after
the fall of Kut-el-Amara in Mesopotamia.
In June the Russian Commander, Gen-
eral Baratoff, wras forced to retire, and
in August Hamadan again fell into the
hands of the Turks. The Russian Army
of the Caucasus, led by the Grand Duke
Nicholas, at the same time was engaged
in a new invasion of Turkish Armenia,
and had already taken Trebizond. After
a march of a hundred miles the Russians
captured Erzingan on July 26. In August
a Tureo-German offensive was begun and
met with some success along the whole
front from the Black Sea to Lake Van, its

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

chief purpose being to retake Erzerum.
Mush and Bitlis were occupied, but the
Russians in a vigorous counteroffensive
retook Mush on Aug. 23, and thus vir-
tually completed their conquest of Turk-
ish Armenia.

The Turks who held the Sinai Penin-
sula made another attempt in July to
advance against the Suez Canal. Troops
to the number of 14,000, under a German
General, got as far as the Katia Oasis, to
which point the British canal defenses
had been pushed. On Aug. 4 a severe
engagement was fought on an eight-mile
front at Romani, a village near the Medi-
terranean coast, twenty-three miles east
of the canal. The Turks were completely
routed, losing 4,000 prisoners, 900 camels,
a Krupp mountain battery, a number of
machine guns, and a large quantity of
military stores. After their defeat the
Turks made an air raid on Port Said and
Suez, the two terminals of the canal.
The retreating troops were again engaged
on Aug. 9 at Bir-el-Abd, which they evac-
uated on Aug. 12. The British then be-
gan to march along the coast road from
the Katia Oasis and Bir-el-Abd, building
a railroad and laying a water main as
they went.

In German East Africa the different
British, Belgian, and Portuguese col-
umns continued to carry out their plan
of converging from all sides of the col-
ony. General Smuts took Wilhelmstal
on June 9 and Tanga on July 9. General
Van Deventer occupied Dodoma on the
Central Railway on July 29 and began to
move toward Dar-es-Salaam. The Ger-
mans, after being driven out of Wil-
helmstal and Tanga, were defeated by
General Smuts in the fighting that took
place on Aug. 9, 10, and 11, and forced
south to the Central Railway. Mean-
while, General Northey's column had on
June 13 occupied Alt Langenburg, and
the Belgians had taken possession of the
railroad between Lake Tanganyika and
Lake Victor Nyanza, and on June 22 de-
feated the ^ermans at Kiwitawe. At
the end of July Ujiji was occupied by the
Belgians, who in August effected a junc-
tion with the British force from Rho-
desia. The last of the German flotilla
on the great lakes, the gunboat Graf von

Vol. VIII

Gotzen, was sunk on July 28 by a Bel-
gian gunboat on Lake Tanganyika.

Aerial operations now being a regular
part of the art of warfare, only the most
striking episodes call for mention. In
scouting, giving the artillery the correct
range, keeping the General Staff in-
formed as to enemy positions and move-
ments, carrying out raids to destroy
trenches, railroads, and ammunition
depots, and in generally harassing the
enemy, aviators were constantly active
during the period under review. During
the battle of the Somme airmen even
swooped down and used their machine
guns against troops in the trenches. The
British were particularly well equipped
with a large number of airplanes of the
latest type. At the opening of the
Somme offensive General Haig knew ex-
actly where the German position was
through receiving wireless messages
from one of his air scouts. Among epi-
sodes worth noting were these: Immel-
man, the German aviator, was shot down
by a British airplane on June 21; Victor
E. Chapman, the first American aviator
to sacrifice his life for France, was
killed while flying over the German lines
at Verdun on June 24; the French air-
man, Marchal, made an attempt on July
20 to fly from France to Russia, but,
having gone 300 miles, he had to descend
just before reaching the Russian line
in Volhynia, and was taken prisoner by
the Germans. He broke the speed and
long distance records for a non-stop
flight. When passing over Berlin he
dropped proclamations which said it
would have been just as easy to drop
bombs. On Aug. 11 a British air squad-
ron paid a visit to Brussels, Namur, and
other points in Belgium, where they bom-
barded airship sheds. On July 8 Sofia
was raided by French aviators and on
Aug. 30 Zeppelins dropped bombs on
Bucharest. The capital of nearly every
belligerent country had thus been visited
by hostile aircraft since the beginning
of the war. During July and August
there were six Zeppelin raids on the
eastern and southeastern counties of
England, sixteen persons being killed
and sixty-eight injured, and there was
also a seaplane attack on Dover.

VI.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

The nearest approach to a naval en-
gagement was on Aug. 19, when the Ger-
man High Seas Fleet left port, only to
return almost at once on discovering that
the British were waiting in consider-
able force. In searching for the enemy
two British light cruisers, the Notting-
ham and the Falmouth, were torpedoed
and sunk, with a loss of thirty-eight
men. One German submarine was sunk
and another rammed. A British sub-
marine attacked the German battleship
Westfalen, which was believed to have
been sunk. A profound sensation was
caused by the loss on June 5 of the Brit-
ish cruiser Hampshire, which struck a
mine and sunk off the Orkney Islands,
because it had on board Lord Kitchener
and his staff, all perishing. Only twelve
of the crew were saved. The British
War Minister was on his way to Russia.
The largest warship lost during this
period was the Italian superdreadnought
Leonardo da Vinci, 22,000 tons, which
was blown up in Taranto Harbor, with
a loss of 300 lives, on Aug. 2. It was
uncertain whether the internal explosion
was caused by a torpedo from an enemy
submarine or by some other mishap.

The German submarine campaign dur-
ing the months of June, July, and Au-
gust was responsible for the destruction
of 237 merchant ships belonging to the
Allies and 52 belonging to neutrals, a
total of 289, representing nearly 300,000
tons. As far as could be ascertained, no
lives were lost, care having been taken
by German submarine commanders to
respect the pledge given by their Gov-
ernment to the United States after the
sinking of the Sussex.

A wave of intense indignation swept
through Great Britain in July when it
was announced that Captain Charles
Fryatt. master of the Great Eastern
Railway's steamship Brussels, had been
tried by court-martial and shot by the
Germans for having tried to ram the
German submarine U-33 on March 20,
1915. The Mayor of Harwich had pre-
sented Fryatt with a watch, the inscrip-
tion on which showed that it was a souve-
nir of his successful escape with his
steamer from the U-33. More than a
year later, on July 23, the Brussels was

Vol. VIII

captured by German warships and taken
into Zeebrugge. By means of the watch
found on him Fryatt's identity was es-
tablished. The other prisoners were sent
to Ruhleben in Germany, but Fryatt was
imprisoned at Bruges. The British For-
eign Office, apprehensive of his fate
when it was known that he had been ar-
rested, sought the assistance of the
American Ambassador in Berlin to se-
cure a proper trial, but these efforts
were unavailing, and on July 28 Fryatt
was tried, condemned, and executed at
Bruges. In the explanation issued by
the German Government it was said that
" one of the many nefarious f ranc-tireur
proceedings of the British merchant ma-
rine against our war vessels has thus
found a belated but merited expiation."
Experts in international law, both in the
allied countries and the United States,
held that Fryatt was entitled to be re-
garded as a prisoner of war and his act
as that of a belligerent, not of a " franc-
tireur." In the House of Commons Mr.
Asquith described Fryatt as having been
" murdered " by the Germans, denounced
the execution as " an atrocious crime,"
and declared that when the time arrived
the British Government was determined
to " bring to justice the criminals, who-
ever they may be and whatever their sta-
tion." On Aug. 15 the British Prime
Minister went further and said that there
would be no resumption of diplomatic
relations with Germany after the war
" until reparation is made for the mur-
der of Captain Fryatt."

The submarine provided a surprise by
showing that it could be used for peace-
ful as well as warlike purposes. On July
9, the Deutschland, a German undersea
vessel designed purely and simply for the
carriage of merchandise, arrived at Balti-
more without escort and after a voyage
of sixteen days from Bremen, Germany.
Captain Paul Koenig's story of how the
Deutschland had passed under the very
keels of British warships, remaining at
one time submerged for ten* hours, at the
bottom of the English Channel, at once
took its place among the romances of
the sea. The first commercial submarine
in history, the Deutschland was built for
a group of Bremen business men to try

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

vn.

to circumvent the British blockade and
carry mails between Germany and Amer-
ica without interference. It was totally
unarmed, and the claim that its status was
that of a peaceful merchant vessel was
upheld by the United States Government.
The Deutschland succeeded in returning
to Germany, and later made another voy-
age to America.

Among the more important measures
to finance the war was the second or
" B " scheme of the British Government
for the mobilization of securities, which
was announced on Aug. 14. The new
scheme, unlike the first one, which had
been put into operation in the previous
December, was not confined to American
securities, but applied also to the loans of
neutral Governments raised in London.
Bondholders were offered one-half per
cent, more than the yield from these
securities, the Treasury having power, if
necessary, to sell. The bonds were re-
quired as collateral for money borrowed
in New York to pay for munitions sup-
plied by American companies. On July
24 the House of Commons voted a British
war credit of $2,250,000,000. The
French credit for the third quarter of
1916 was for $1,702,000,000. In June
the sixth German war credit for $3,000,-
000,000 was passed by the Reichstag.
The Imperial Finance Minister reported,
as evidence of Germany's financial
strength, that at the end of August sav-
ings banks deposits had increased by over
$400,000,000, exclusive of the amounts
subscribed to war loans. Estimates made
at the end of the second year of the war
placed the cost to all the belligerents at
$50,000,000,000, four-fifths of which rep-
resented an addition to national debts
existing before the war.

Although Italy's declaration of war
against Germany on Aug. 27 did not in-
crease the number of belligerents, it
helped to deepen and widen the conflict,
at the same time clearing up some of the
curious questions involved in the cir-
cumstance that Italy was at war with
Austria-Hungary but not with Germany.
The explanation of the postponement of
the break between Italy and Germany
was that German investments in Italy
amounted to $3,000,000,000 and that

Vol. \'ill

German financial interests still exercised
a great deal of influence in certain pow-
erful quarters not far removed from the
Italian Government. After war broke
out between Italy and Austria-Hungary,
a treaty was conducted by Germany and
Italy for the protection of German sub-
jects and German property in Italy. Even
when the Italian Government proclaimed
the breaking off of trade relations with
Germany and seized German ships in
Italian ports, the two countries continued
intercourse and commerce with one an-
other. But on June 8 the German Im-
perial Appeal Court decided that tech-
nically the two nations were at war, and
on July 14 German bankers ceased mak-
ing payments to Italians in Germany.
The following day Italy retaliated by
abrogating the treaty guaranteeing the
protection of German subjects and prop-
erty, and on Aug. 27 war was declared
against Germany on the grounds that the
German banks were treating Italians in
Germany as enemy aliens and that Ger-
man troops were supporting Austrian
military operations against Italy. But
it must not be forgotten that Italy had
participated in the Allies' Economic Con-
ference, about which we have yet to
speak, and that in consequence new mo-
tives had come into play.

The same day that Italy finally broke
with Germany Rumania declared war
against Austria-Hungary. By an agree-
ment finally made with Russia on Aug.
4 Rumania was to be allowed to keep
the Austro-Hungarian territories inhabi-
ted by Rumanians, provided they were
occupied by force before the end of. the
war. Rumania apparently thought that
the signs of weakness exhibited by the
German? on the Somme and the Aus-
trians on the Carso Plateau and in East
Galicia now gave the signal for accom-
plishing the " Rumanian union on both
slopes of the Carpathians " which would
be realized by absorbing that part of
Hungary which lies east of the river
Thiess. Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey
speedily declared war on Rumania, and,
though the first dash made by the Ru-
manian forces toward Transylvania
seemed promising, whatever ideas Ru-
mania had of shortening the war and

Vlll.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

creating a " Greater Rumania " were
soon shattered by the Teutonic conquest
of her existing territories, as will be seen
in the next volume.

The motives which had induced Italy
to declare war against Germany and
Rumania to cast off her neutrality were
also expected to influence Greece to join
the Allies. But the attachment of King
Constantine and his party to Germany
again proved too strong. On the con-
trary, the period under review was re-
markable for certain acts which showed
that if the opportunity came Greece
would fight, not for the Allies, but
against them. In the previous volume
it has been recorded how several Greek
forts were handed over to the Germans
and Bulgarians under instructions from
King Constantine's Government. In
June the Greek Army, already mobilized,
and apparently waiting to join forces
with the Germans and Bulgarians, if they
could advance to a point where a junc-
tion could be effected, became the ob-
ject of increased suspicion on the part
of the Allies. A demand for demobiliza-
tion met with partial compliance on June
8, on which date the Allies declared a new
commercial blockade of Greek ports. On
June 21 the Allies made more drastic
demands, which included complete de-
mobilization of the Greek Army, a new
Ministry formed on a non-partisan basis,
the election of a new Chamber of Dep-
uties, and the dismissal of certain pro-
German police officials. The Greek Gov-
ernment acceded to these demands.
Zaimis succeeded Skouloudis as Premier,
and once more it seemed that the Greek
question was settled. The Allies, ac-
cordingly, raised the blockade on July 3.
But it was not long before a new crisis
arose, occasioned this time by the open-
ing of the Allies' offensive. Many
Greeks, roused by the Bulgarian inva-
sion of their territory, threw off their
allegiance to the King and turned to the
revolutionists, who organized the Com-
mittee of National Defense at Saloniki
and established a Provisional Govern-
ment of Macedonia. Venizelos actively
encouraged the revolution, while dis-
claiming any intention to overthrow the
dynasty.

Vol. VIII

Lloyd George's forecast that the war
would bring an end to Turkey's " ram-
shackle empire " was recalled by the
declaration of independence issued by the
Grand Shereef of Mecca, Chief Magis-
trate of the holy city of Islam, who insti-
gated a revolt of the Arab tribes and
established his authority as an inde-
pendent sovereign at Mecca, Jedda, Kin-
funda, and Taif. The Turkish garrisons
in these towns were taken prisoner, and
Arabia passed from the sway of the Sul-
tan. The Grand Shereef, El Husein Ibn
Ali, in his proclamation, dated June 27,
explained that the cause of his revolt
was that Turkey was governed by the
Committee of Union and Progress, that
is, the Young Turks, who were chiefly
responsible for Turkey becoming an ally
of the Central Powers, and that the
Young Turks had done many impious
things. One of the most important in-
fluences at work in bringing about the
creation of an independent kingdom of
Arabia was that of the British Govern-
ment. The Germans early in the war
had tried, through the Sultan of Turkey,
to set aflame a holy war of all Moham-
medans against the British with the spe-
cial object of fomenting disturbances
and rousing revolt in India and Egypt.
The British, through the Grand Shereef
of Mecca, now hit back by destroying
the Sultan's authority in the region most
sacred to the Mohammedan world.

Another Oriental land where the Allies
defeated German designs was Persia, still
in the throes of turmoil and disorder.
The effect of the Russian military opera-
tions already described was to bar the
way of the Turkish forces to Teheran,
which the Shah and the Persian Govern-
ment were about to be forced to evacuate
because of the convulsed condition created
by the Turks and the German secret
agents, who were the leading mischief-
makers. The situation was most critical
in August, but from that time onward
Persia was gradually brought under
Russo-British control. Many of the Ger-
man emissaries were captured, and an-
archy stamped out. A notable part in
this work of restoring law and order was
played by the military mission, under
Sir Percy Sykes, which made a march of

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

ix.

a thousand miles from Bunder Abbas,
(Bander Abbasi,) a seaport of South-
eastern Persia, to Ispahan and thence to
Teheran. In Southern Persia Sir Percy
Sykes organized a new gendarmerie with
British officers, and on arrival at
Teheran arranged with the Russian dip-
lomatic representatives to assist the
Persian Government financially. An-
other British expedition, commanded by
Major Keith, restored order in Eastern
Persia, and soon it was hoped to root out
the remainder of the brigands and rob-
bers who still infested parts of the coun-
try. On Aug. 6 Russia and Great Brit-
ain, who had in 1907 signed a convention
dividing Persia into two spheres of in-
fluence, signed a new treaty for the fut-
ure control of these territories.

The death of Lord Kitchener led to
some changes in the British Cabinet,
which, however, had no political signifi-
cance. Lloyd George, who, no matter
what department he presided over, re-
mained the people's leader, left the Min-
istry of Munitions on July 6 to become
head of the War Office. Edwin S.
Montagu, a member of a rich and influ-
ential banking family, was appointed
Minister of Munitions. On Aug. 23 Par-
liament extended the term of the House
of Commons, which had been elected in
December, 1910, for another period of
eight months, making the date of expira-
tion May 31, 1917.

The trouble in Ireland roused the Brit-
ish Government to make a fresh effort
to pacify the country by settling the home
rule question. Lloyd George was chosen
for the task, and he succeeded in drafting
a provisional scheme which satisfied all
sections of Ireland. Nationalists and
Unionists, Catholics and Protestants,
were at last in agreement, as were the
two great adversaries, John Redmond and
Sir Edward Carson. The outlook was
more promising than it had ever been.
But the Conservatives and Unionists in
England still cherished their old distrust
of Irish self-government, and through
their influence in the Coalition Govern-
ment and their dominant position in the
House of Lords they wrecked Lloyd
George's plan. In the House of Com-
mons on July 24 Lloyd George made a
frank confession of his failure, which

brought from the Nationalists accusa-
tions of treachery and revived in all its
bitterness the feud which it had been
hoped was about to disappear from Brit-
ish politics. The appointment on July 31
of Henry E. Duke, a Conservative, to be
Chief Secretary for Ireland, did not im-
prove the situation.

Sir Roger Casement was brought to
trial on June 27 and two days later con-
victed of high treason. Before sentence
of death was passed on him he made a
memorable speech in which he declared
that " judicial assassination " was " re-
served for only one race of the King's
subjects, for Irishmen, for those who can-
not forget their allegiance to the realm
of Ireland." The court before which he
appeared was, he said, a foreign court.
Strenuous efforts were made to secure a
commutation of the death sentence. The
United States Senate passed a resolution
asking that clemency be exercised. The
Pope interceded, and a petition was
signed by many distinguished Catholic
and Protestant clergymen and laymen in
the United Kingdom. But Lord Robert
Cecil, on behalf of the British Govern-
ment, formally declared that no Govern-
ment doing its duty could interfere with
the sentence. Sir Roger Casement was,
therefore, hanged in London on Aug. 3.

Elsewhere in the British Empire we
have to note that in July the Canadian
commission appointed to investigate the
scandals in connection with munitions ex-
onerated Sir Sam Hughes, the Minister
of Defense, and that New Zealand en-
acted a conscription law, this being the
only one of the British self-governing
colonies to follow the example of the
mother country.

In France the Briand Ministry was
subjected to an unceasing fusillade of
criticism by dissatisfied members of the
Chamber of Deputies. So that the whole
military and diplomatic situation might
be discussed in the light of facts which
could not be made public, the Govern-
ment agreed to the holding of secret ses-
sions by the Chamber, and also by the
Senate. For seven days in June the
Chamber held angry discussions behind
closed doors, but at the end of the debate
a vote of confidence in the Government

Vol. VIII

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

was carried by 440 to 97. The Senate
also voted in favor of continued support
for M. Briand's administration. Although
the decision of the Chamber was not to
interfere in the conduct of the war as far
as military operations were concerned, it
refused to subordinate its authority in
other directions. More than any other
belligerent country the French Republic
was maintaining democratic rights and
privileges by holding the Government re-
sponsible to the people's representatives.

A political crisis occurred in Italy in
consequence of the retreat of the army
in the Trentino. The Salandra Ministry
was thrown out of office on June 10 by
an adverse vote in the Chamber of Depu-
ties of 197 against 158, and a Coalition
Cabinet was formed with Paolo Boselli
as Premier. Sonnino remained Foreign
Minister. The new Ministry had the
support of all parties and groups, with
the exception of nearly fifty radical
Socialists, who demanded peace. But
the new Government threw itself more
energetically into the war, and one of
its notable acts was to bring about the
complete and final break with Germany.
A comprehensive program of economic,
agricultural, and other measures to pro-
mote efficiency and self-subsistence was
put forward by tht Government, and
for the most part carried out.

The Russian autocracy was to be seen
in the Summer and Autumn of 1916 in
the penultimate stages of its resistance
to the rising tide of democracy, little
dreaming how soon the flood was to
sweep away the old order. Boris Stiir-
mer, the reactionary and pro-German
Premier, was almost the last of the en-
emies of the Russian people. For a few
months he was still to be in the as-
cendant. During that time intrigues for
a separate peace with Germany were
rife, as well as the habitual efforts to
oppress and tyrannize over the people.
But the Duma was steadily working for
the creation of a new and democratic
Russia. One of the greatest reforms
was the bill passed on July .2 conferring
on the moujiks, or peasants, the same
rights as other classes possessed. The
moujiks were now entitled to elect repre-
sentatives to the zemstvos, or provincial

Vol. VIII

councils, and were freed from many of
their disabilities, which, in some respects,
were greater than those of the Jews.
Another sign of social progress was the
spread of feminist ideas and their appli-
cation. Since the war Russian women
had been steadily increasing in the ranks
of the professional and industrial work-
ers. This was particularly the case
among school teachers and munition
makers. The law passed by the Duma
providing for the appointment of women
as factory inspectors was hailed as a
recognition of the changing position of
women. More important as a cause of
the revolution which came in March,
1917, was the drawing closer of the bond
between the people and the army. The
army had been rapidly discovering that
its success depended, not on the old
bureaucracy, but on such organizations
as the Ail-Russian Zemstvo Union, the
Union of Municipalities, and the War
Industries Association, all created by the
people themselves and regarded with
suspicious anxiety by the Government.

The resignation on July 23 of Sergius
Sazonoff, Minister of Foreign Affairs
and a loyal supporter of the Entente,
was the sequel to the dissensions which
arose in the Council of Ministers. The
immediate cause was disagreement on
the question of granting Poland full au-
tonomy whenever the conquered terri-
tories should be regained from the Ger-
man forces. Sazonoff all along strongly
advocated full, not partial or make-be-
lieve, autonomy. Sturmer was willing
to promise only a modified form of self-
government, chiefly in municipal affairs.
Sazonoff refused to abandon his project
after working for it for two years, and,
unable to work any longer in harmony
with Sturmer, he resigned. It was said
that another reason for Sazonoff's action
was Stunner's desire to make a separate
peace with the Central Empires. There
was, therefore, considerable anxiety
among the Entente Allies when Sturmer
himself took the position of Foreign Min-
ister. Sturmer, on taking over Sazonoff 's
portfolio, left the Ministry of the In-
terior, to which Alexei Khvostoff was
once more appointed, while A. A. Mak-
haroff was chosen as Minister of Jus-

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

XI.

tice. The Duma was prorogued on July
3 to Nov. 14. During this recess the
Sturmer - Khvostoff - Makharoff group
continued to hamper and harass, because
it could not hold back the rising de-
mocracy.

The principal change in the direction
of Germany's destinies was the replace-
ment of von Falkenhayn by von Hinden-
burg as Chief of the General Staff on
Aug. 29. General von Ludendorf, as
Quartermaster General, became von
Hindenburg's chief assistant in the su-
preme direction of the Teutonic war ma-
chine, and also a powerful force in the
molding of domestic policy.

If it is true that the real underlying
cause of the war was the rivalry of two
great groups of economic interests, then
the most significant development dur-
ing the first two and a half years was
the Allies' Economic Conference, which
sat in Paris from June 14 to 17. Its pur-
pose was to plan a new war after the
war, a war of economic extinction or iso-
lation against Germany and her allies.
Eight Governments were represented —
Great Britain, Belgium, France, Portu-
gal, Italy, Serbia, Russia, and Japan.
The British delegates included two
colonial statesmen from Greater Britain,
William Morris Hughes, the Prime Min-
ister of Australia, and Sir George Fos-
ter, the Canadian Minister of Commerce.
Hughes was perhaps the most conspicu-
ous figure at the conference. Coming
from a far-distant part of the British
Empire, he had been electrifying the
English people by his extraordinarily in-
tense advocacy of the economic extermi-
nation of Germany. The conference was
held in secret, but the resolutions adopted
were published, and they showed that
not only were vigorous measures to be
taken to tighten the existing blockade
and make the Central Powers suffer
through cutting off the importation of
foodstuffs and other necessaries, but also
that German economic expansion after
the war was to be rendered impossible.
The first set of resolutions dealt with
measures for the duration of the war,
such as prohibiting trade with the enemy,
contraband, and exports to neutral coun-
tries. The second set of resolutions out-

lined transitory measures for the recon-
struction of the invaded countries, the
withdrawal of the " most favored nation "
treatment from the enemy for a number
of years, the conservation by the Allies
of their resources for one another in
preference to all other countries, and the
exclusion of enemy subjects from certain
professions and industries in the allied
countries. The third set of resolutions
foreshadowed permanent measures of
mutual aid and common action, the prin-
cipal one being to rid the allied coun-
tries of their dependence on enemy coun-
tries as regards raw material and manu-
factured products, as well as financial,
commercial, and transportation facilities.
These resolutions were not binding on the
respective Governments, but were recom-
mendations only. Those relating to
measures for the duration of the war
had an immediate effect, to be noted
presently.

Additional light was thrown on the
purpose and character of the Allies'
economic union by several of the national
leaders. The war had shown them, said
M. Briand, the French Prime Minister,
the extent of the economic slavery to
which they were to have been made sub-
ject, but the war would not have been in
vain, despite the sacrifices it demanded, if
it brought about an economic liberation
of the world.

The resolutions adopted at the confer-
ence, Mr. Hughes said, would effect little
short of an economic revolution. " I be-
lieve that through them," he added, " we
can strike a blow right at the heart of
Germany. At the close of the war we
shall have to face not only Germany, but
the united forces of the Central Empires,
with a population of 120,000,000, as well
as the neutral nations who, growing rich
while we grow daily poorer, are making
great preparations to capture the world's
markets and oust us from our position."

The neutral nations, and, most of all,
the United States, viewed the foundation
of the new economic alliance with a great
deal of apprehension. The matter was
brought up in the United States Senate
on June 29 by Senator Stone, who said
that measures should be adopted to safe-
guard American interests, since there

Vol. VIII

3Q1.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

was a suspicion that the trade boycott
might extend to neutrals after the war.
He discussed the su eject again on July
10, and quoted from a speech made by
the Australian Prime Minister in which
the purpose was declared to hold the sea-
carrying trade and control the markets of
the world. Senator Lodge, supporting
Senator Stone, said that American in-
dustries must be organized for the eco-
nomic struggles they would have to face,
and be put in such a condition that they
could stand behind the people and the
Government to meet any tests and make
the world understand that America could
not be invaded either physically or eco-
nomically with impunity.

In Germany economists pretended to
take a calm view of the threatened war
after the war on the ground that the
plans of the Allies would, in practice, be
just as injurious to them as to Germany,
and that they were all based on an un-
scientific and romantic idea of interna-
tional commerce. This view was also
expressed in the protests of British free
traders, who held that Germany could
not be commercially isolated without in-
jury to all nations.

Several important changes followed,
even if they did not arise out of, the con-
ference. The first of these affected con-
traband and involved the abandonment
of the Declaration of London, which the
British and French Governments form-
ally announced on July 7. A new order,
known as the " Maritime Rights Order in
Council, 1916," was issued, declaring the
intention of Great Britain and her allies
to exercise their belligerent rights at sea
in accordance with the law of nations.
Four rules were framed to meet the
changed conditions and clear up all
doubts as to the diversity of practice.
They were (1) presumption of hostile
destination till the contrary be proved;

(2) application of the principle of con-
tinuous voyage or ultimate destination to
cases of both contraband and blockade;

(3) liability to capture and condemnation
of neutral vessels carrying contraband
and falsely indicating a neutral desti-
nation; (4) liability to capture and con-
demnation of vessels with cargoes more
than half contraband. The Declaration

Vol. VIII

of London had never been ratified by
Great Britain, but at the opening of the
war it was adopted with modifications.
So many changes, however, were intro-
duced as the war progressed that very
little of the original code remained when
it was entirely superseded by the new
Order in Council of July 7. The effect
of the change was to go back to the inter-
national law observed before 1909.

Another measure of economic warfare
against Germany was the trade blacklist
issued by the British Government on
July 18. This was done under an act
passed in December, 1915, authorizing
the publication of lists of persons in
neutral countries with whom British sub-
jects were forbidden to trade. The list
of boycotted firms contained over 1,500
names. Certain ships were also black-
listed. The number of firms in the
United States were eighty-five, which
was exceeded by those in Spain, Brazil,
Holland, and some other countries. Pro-
tests were promptly made by many of
the neutral Governments. The United
States sent an exceptionally vigorous
note, and Congress prepared to pass re-
taliatory legislation. The British Gov-
ernment, in reply, explained that the
blacklist was not as drastic as it ap-
peared, that it would not affect existing
contracts, and that it would not apply
to those who traded with blacklisted
firms. Although a few names were re-
moved from the list, the British Govern-
ment made no substantial concession,
and delayed its reply to the American
protest of July 26 until October.

The effect of the war on the situation
in China was of vital concern to the
United States, for greater opportunities
had been afforded to Japan than would
have been possible if the European pow-
ers had not been engaged in fighting one
another. Japan's active participation in
the war amounted to little more than
naval patrol work in the Indian and
Pacific Oceans and the occupation of
Germany's Chinese colony at Kiao-Chau.
She was, therefore, free to pursue other
aims. Early in the war demands were
made on China that would make Japan
the sole arbiter of her destinies and sole
exploiter of her resources. But Russia

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

xiii.

had to be reckoned with, and the in-
terests of the two countries, now allies in
the great war, suggesting that they
would mutually benefit by co-operation
rather than rivalry, led them to sign a
new treaty at Petrograd on July 3. The
text as published disclosed nothing more
than the fact that the two Governments
pledged themselves not to be a party to
any arrangement or political combination
directed against one or the other in the
Far East and that in regard to terri-
torial rights or special interests each
would help the other to protect and de-
fend those rights and interests. But to
what these generalities referred in the
concrete was, in accordance with the
methods of secret diplomacy, kept for
the confidential documents which em-
bodied the real and substantial agree-
ment. It was stated, however, that the
secret terms covered the question of the
Eastern Chinese Railway, the navigation
of the Sungari River, commercial and
residential privileges in Siberia, Mon-
golia, and Manchuria, and the supply of
munitions by Japan to Russia.

The tightening grip of Japan and Rus-
sia on China was a matter of deep con-
cern to the bankers and railroad con-
struction firms of the United States, who
were gradually beginning to find a new
outlet for capital and a new field for
industrial enterprise in a very rich but
undeveloped country. The Chinese Gov-
ernment desired to be financed by Amer-
ican bankers, and to encourage railroad
construction by American companies.
But in both directions American enter-
prise was met with objections from
Japan and Russia, and also to some ex-
tent from Great Britain and France. Ul-
timately, however, the protests against
American banks lending money to the
Chinese Government were overcome, and
America was asked to co-operate with
the other powers. But the American
International Corporation's project for
railroad and canal construction did not
so easily gain the approval of the Jap-
anese and Russian Governments, al-
through there seemed every prospect that
before long an agreement would be
reached whereby American capital would
find a very important new outlet. Polit-

ically, the United States was also con-
cerned about the preservation of the in-
tegrity of China, which was involved by
the presence of Japanese military offi-
cers and troops in Southern Manchuria
and Eastern Mongolia. Two episodes in
which Japanese troops came into con-
flict with Chinese led to inquiries by the
United States Government through the
Ambassador at Tokio. The Japanese
Government denied that it had either in-
fringed Chinese sovereign rights or in-
tended to do so. It was evident that
the whole question of China's relations
to the leading foreign powers was still
in an unsettled state and that no solu-
tion was likely till after the war. As
far as Chinese affairs themselves were
concerned, the most important event was
the death of Yuan Shih-kai on June 6 in
the midst of a serious deadlock with the
republicans and revolutionaries who de-
manded his resignation or deposition.
Yuan had desisted from his design to
make himself Emperor, but was still
pursuing a policy of reaction. Li Yuan-
hung became President, and measures
were adopted by the Cabinet and the Na-
tional Assembly to establish the Govern-
ment of the republic on a more stable
basis.

Several matters in which the United
States was affected by the war and ex-
ternal developments generally have al-
ready been recorded. During the period
under review the submarine controversy
was not so acute as it had been, or was
about to become again. On June 21 Sec-
retary of State Lansing sent a sharp
note of reply to the Austro-Hungarian
Government in regard to the American
oil steamship Petrolite, which was at-
tacked by a submarine in the Mediter-
ranean in December, 1915. More than a
dozen shells were fired at the vessel, and
one at least hit it, injuring a member of
the crew. The Austro-Hungarian note
of Feb. 25, which strove to explain away
the episode, was, according to Lansing's
reply, at variance with the facts, and the
outrageous conduct of the submarine
commander in attacking the Petrolite and
securing provisions by threats of violence
was " a deliberate insult to the flag of
the United States and an invasion of the

Vol. VIII

XIV.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY

rights of American citizens," for which
an apology, the punishment of the sub-
marine commander, and the payment of
an indemnity were demanded.

The use of information obtained
through the detention and censorship of
mails between America and Europe for
the benefit of British business at the ex-
pense of neutrals was the subject of con-
siderable controversy. Lord Robert Cecil,
the British Minister of War Trade, in
statements made on Aug. 9 and 25 em-
phatically denied that any unfair ad-
vantage was being taken of the informa-
tion. All that the British Government
was doing, it was subsequently stated by
Lloyd George, was to trace cases in which
the regulations against trading with the
enemy were being disregarded. The com-
plete reply to the United States was de-
livered by the British and French Gov-
ernments on Oct. 12.

President Wilson on July 21 addressed
personal messages to the rulers of Great
Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and
Austria-Hungary suggesting fresh con-
sideration of measures for the relief of
Poland. But nothing was achieved by
the President because Great Britain and
her allies demanded a guarantee that
the supplies in the conquered territory
should not be exported nor used by the
army of occupation, and because, at the
same time, Germany refused to give this
guarantee. The request of the United
States Government that medical and hos-
pital supplies for the exclusive use of the
sick and wounded which the American
Red Cross desired to send to Germany
was rejected by the British Government
in a note on July 12 which denied the
need of such articles in Germany.

Captain Hans Tauscher, the agent in
America for Krupps, who was indicted
on a charge of violating the neutrality
laws in connection with a plot to destroy
the Welland Canal in Canada, was
brought to trial on June 26. According
to Major von der Goltz, Tauscher had
provided arms, explosives, and money for
a military expedition, but the jury re-
turned a verdict of not guilty.

Following the passage of the National
Defense act in May, the Army Appropri-
ation bill carried further the program of
Vol. VIII

military preparedness advocated by
President Wilson. In addition to provid-
ing $267,596,530, a largely increased
amount due partly to the Mexican expedi-
tion and the calling out of the National
Militia, the bill conferred on the Presi-
dent new powers in time of war, and
extended the organization for the execu-
tion of war policy. The President was
authorized to take control of the railroads
for military purposes whenever neces-
sary, a Council of National Defense was
established to insure co-operation be-
tween the Government and those oper-
ating railroads and industries for war
purposes; and the Articles of War were
revised. The bill was signed by the
President on Aug. 29, the same day as
he also signed the Naval Appropriation
bill. The amount voted for the navy
was $313,300,555, which was more than
twice that voted in 1916. The increase
was mainly due to the adoption of a
three-year building program, which would
provide 157 vessels of all classes. The
appropriations for the army, navy, and
fortifications ran up to a total of $606,-
645,135, the largest amount ever voted
for warlike purposes by a nation not at
war.

Negotiations with Denmark for the
purchase of the Danish West Indies, or
the Virgin Islands, as they were named
when they passed under American con-
trol, were concluded on July 24 and the
treaty signed in New York on Aug. 4.
The purpose in acquiring the islands
was strategic, as a first-class naval base
would be made available to the United
States.

Although the tremendous program of
national preparedness indicated that a
great change was steadily being effected
in American foreign policy and that the
United States was now to be reckoned
among the greatest of world powers,
President Wilson continually made it
clear that America's intentions were
peaceful. Speaking on June 30, he asked
the question, " Do you think it is our
duty to carry self-defense to the point
of dictation in the affairs of another
people ? " Again, on July 10, he said
that he would not help the ambitions of
those who were trying to exploit the

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII.

xv.

privileges and possessions of another
country, such as Mexico. In the same
speech the President, hinting at the in-
fluence of finance on military policy,
made it clear that it must be " with their
spirits and minds " that those who fi-
nanced the world must understand and
rule it.

President Wilson's speech at the end
of May, in which he indorsed the idea of
a League to Enforce Peace, attracted
considerable attention in belligerent
countries, but his tentative proffer of
mediation was submerged in the flood of
recrimination between statesmen of the
warring nations. In the Reichstag on
June 5 the Imperial Chancellor, flushed
with what Germany regarded as victory
in the naval battle off Jutland, declared
that any further suggestions of peace

would be "futile and evil." Lloyd
George, in a letter on June 8, wrote that
" only a crushing military victory will
bring the peace for which the Allies are
fighting and of which Germany will un-
derstand the meaning." When the end
of the second year of the war was
reached at the beginning of August the
anniversary was celebrated by another
outburst of defiant speeches and procla-
mations. The Kaiser in messages to the
people and his soldiers and sailors placed
the " blame for further bloodshed only on
our enemies " and exulted in another
"year of glory." King George, Presi-
dent Poincare, General Joffre, and the
Russian War Minister addressed equally
stirring messages to the allied forces.
On all sides there was still no hope or
prospect of peace.

Vol. VIII

PERIOD XXII.

The North Sea Fight — The Drowning of Lord Kitchener — Brusiloffs
Great Drive— How the British Army Was Created—" If I Were Wil-
son " — The Freedom of the Seas — American Note on Seizure of the
Mails— Why Peace Talk at Present Is Idle— Peace Through Victory
— The Creed of America in War and Peace — Horrors of Trench
Fighting.

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

THE MEXICAN CRISIS

THE relations between the United
States and Mexico are strained
almost to the point of warfare as this
issue of CURRENT HISTORY goes to
press, (June 20.) On Sunday, June
18, President Wilson called out sub-
stantially all the State militia of the
United States, to be sent to the Mexican
border, " wherever and as fully as Gen-
eral Funston determines them to be
needed." The Secretary of War, in trans-
mitting the President's call, states that
it " is wholly unrelated to General Per-
shing's expedition, and contemplates no
additional entry into Mexico." At the
same time the Secretary of the Navy has
ordered additional warships, gunboats,
and other craft on both the east and west
coasts of America to Mexican waters.

On June 20 our reply to the request of
General Carranza for the withdrawal of
American troops from Mexico went for-
ward. The note was a refusal to with-
draw the troops. The message is long,
containing about 6,000 words. It states
that our armed forces will remain in
Mexico until the Mexican Government so
thoroughly polices the border that bandit
raids into American territory become im-
possible; but it contains a reaffirmation
of the friendly intentions of the United
States toward the de facto Government
of Mexico.

It is estimated that approximately
100,000 National Guardsmen will be mus-
tered into the Federal service and be
speedily sent to the frontier for patrol
duty. The entire force at the disposal of
General Funston will consist of about
35,000 regulars and 100,000 Guardsmen.

[ToL Till.. P. 5»1.]

It is not likely that General Carranza will
deliberately precipitate war, and the
United States gives definite assurances
that its forces are not being mobilized for
aggression, but will be utilized for de-
fense only. The danger, however, arises
from the increasing excitement among
the Mexicans. There is strong likelihood
that their resentment will burst forth
into some seriously hostile outbreak be-
fore the deliberate processes of diplomacy
can adjust the crisis. It is evident that the
patience of the United States Govern-
ment is about exhausted, and little hope
is felt that Carranza can restore order
and maintain it. The firm steps that are
now being taken by President Wilson will
bring matters to a head, and before this
magazine reaches its readers the ques-
tion of forcible intervention (which will
mean war) or of a permanent basis of
friendly co-operation for the suppression
of disorders will have been settled be-
tween the two countries.

PEACE PROSPECTS

PROSPECTS of peace were encourag-
-*• ing in April and early May, owing
to the apparently pacific words of the
German Chancellor and the evident lati-
tude given by the censors to German
newspapers in discussions of the subject.
So definite did the possibilities appear
that President Wilson's address at Wash-
ington before the League to Enforce
Peace was expected by many to open the
way for a formal offer of mediation.
That tentative utterance, however, evoked
positive opposition from the chief spokes-
men of the Entente powers, which, in

592

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

turn produced emphatic protests from in-
fluential groups in Germany.

Then came the German advances at
Verdun, the Austrian successes in the
Trentino, and, most important of all, the
great naval battle off the coast of Jut-
land, which was hailed by all Germany
as a German victory. Assuming a new
and defiant tone, Chancellor von Beth-
mann Hollweg withdrew his former over-
tures and declared unqualifiedly that fut-
ure proffers of peace must come from
the Entente and would be entertained by
Germany only on the basis of the " war
map." In other words, Germany must be
acknowledged to be in legal possession of
the conquered territory of Belgium,
France, Poland, Russia, and Serbia. Since
then a great Russian offensive has swept
westward into Austria, but all talk of
peace is stilled for the present.

All the official utterances of this epi-
sode are printed in the present issue of
CURRENT HISTORY. They throw an in-
teresting light upon the very heart of
the war situation. Since that indecisive
naval battle both sides are more fiercely
determined than ever to win. The un-
bridgeable chasm between them is indi-
cated in the semi-official Cologne Ga-
zette's comment upon the allied state-
ment that the duration of the war de-
pends on the will of the German and
Austrian Emperors:

They (the English and French) do not know
that, universally honored and loved though
Emperor William and Emperor Francis Jo-
seph are in their countries, their disappear-
ance from the stage would, have no influence
at all upon the course of the war. * * *
The two Central Powers are fighting for
their lives against a limited liability com-
pany of robbers, assembled on a scale never
previously known. They know that all that
is dearest to them, the soil and the future of
their Fatherland, is at stake, and so they will
go on fighting until a result in accordance
with their ideas has been reached.
* * *

THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND

THE naval battle off Jutland near the
entrance to the Skagerrak is the out-
standing maritime event of the entire war.
Both belligerents claim a victory. The
Germans acclaimed the battle as an over-
whelming triumph, and the Kaiser sent
congratulatory telegrams to the com-

manding officers and boasted that all the
honors rested with the German fleet —
that the entire Grand Fleet of Great
Britain had been encountered and badly
worsted. " The first big blow," he de-
clared, " has been dealt the English fleet,
whose tyrannical supremacy is shat-
tered."

The German Chancellor declared that
the battle was " a great victory," denied
that the German fleet had fled, and
asserted that the Germans, in greatly
inferior numbers, had " defeated the en-
tire Grand Fleet of Great Britain." In
his first statement he said the German
losses were 24,000 tons against 114,000
by the English, with a like proportion-
ate loss of life, but the German losses
were subsequently conceded by the Gov-
ernment to be in excess of 60,000 tons.
The British admiralty in the first offi-
cial announcement specified its own
losses and understated the German losses,
(for which it was criticised at home,)
but subsequently supplemented the first
announcement with an official statement
that the German losses had been greatly
underrated in the first reports and that
from the best information then obtain-
able they exceeded in weight and num-
bers the British losses. It is persistently
insisted by England that two new battle-
ships of the Kindenburg class and two
dreadnought battle cruisers (one, the
Liitzow, is conceded by the Germans)
were lost, notwithstanding the Imperial
Admiralty's claims to the contrary. Ger-
many, indeed, has been very reticent in
giving details of its losses — in announc-
ing the death of high naval officials
the names of the vessels on which they
served are omitted,,

The relative strength of the two
navies at the beginning of 1916 was as
follows :

, — England. — >
Built. B'ld'g-.
Battleships .... 58 U
Battle cruisers. 9 1
Cruisers 47

,— Germany.-*
Built. B'ld'g.
35 6
4 3
9
43 6

133 12
80
24 14

Light cruisers. . 03
Torpedo vessels. 25
Destroyers 201
Torpedo boats.. 10G
Submarines .... G9

20
1
36

Since these figures were compiled a

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

£93

number of new ships have been added
to both navies, and others have been laid
down, probably a small percentage in
excess by England.

There are 150,000 men in the English
Navy, hence a loss of 6,104 dead or
missing, 513 wounded — the latest Brit-
ish estimate — represents a trifle over 4
per cent.; the German casualties are
given as 2,414 dead, 449 wounded, show-
ing that the actual loss of men on both
sides, compared to the whole, will make
no difference in relative strength. As
respects the tonnage loss, if the present
English and German official claims are
anywhere near the truth, it is about an
even break, so far as the relative
strength of the two navies is con-
cerned.

The most important deduction to be
drawn from the battle, without debating
which was victor or which suffered the
greater loss, is the fact that since the
battle the English blockade of the North
Sea has not relaxed — on the contrary,
has tightened — and that the English
fleet is again endeavoring to draw the
Germans from their harbor.
* * *

A REMARKABLE HUMAN DOCUMENT FROM

THE TRENCHES

CURRENT HISTORY surrenders con-
^ siderable space to the narrative of
an American barber who enlisted with
the Canadian troops and spent over a
year on the firing line in France and
Belgium. His history has been investi-
gated and the authenticity of all his
service claims is officially confirmed,
while his reputation in his home city
entitles his personal statements to full-
est credence. It is a bitter, gruesome
tale he unfolds; war is stripped of its
imagery and pomp; the depressing life
within the trenches, the terrifying sur-
roundings, the inevitable darkening of
the spirit, the lust for human sacrifice —
these reveal the abyss into which war
hurls its victims. One turns from Romeo
Houle's horrifying chapter with a sense
of woe, which is only partly relieved by
a corresponding surge of thankfulness
that our nation has thus far avoided this
frightful maelstrom.

AN ACCUSATION DISPROVED
N Aug. 3, 1914, Herr de Schoen, the

German Ambassador to France,
handed the following document to M.
Viviani, the French Premier:

The German military and administrative
authorities have ascertained that a number
of hostile acts have been committed on Ger-
man territory by French military aviators.
Some of the latter have, violated the neu-
trality of Belgium, invading its territory.
One sought to destroy works in progress at
Wesel, others were perceived in the vicinity
of Eiffel, and one threw bombs on the rail-
road station near Karlsruhe and at Nurem-
berg. I am directed and have the honor to
inform your Excellency that in consequence
of these aggressions the German Empire con-
siders itself at war with France, due to the
acts of this latter power.

Now come* a distinguished German,
Professor JSchwalde, director and editor
in chief of th > Gei .nan Weekly Review
of Medicine, Vic writes in that impor-
tant German periodical, twenty-two
months after this momentous charge was
made by the German Government, the
following words :

It is false that French aviators threw on
Aug. 2, 1914, any bombs. on Nuremberg. The
Mayor of the city recently wrote to the Gen-
eral commanding the Third Bavarian Army
Corps that he never had any knowledge of
any bombardment of the stations of Nurem-
berg, Kissingen, or of Nuremberg-Ansbach
before or after the declaration of war.
* * *

GENERAL HAIG'S WORK
rpHERE are definite signs, as this issue
•*- of CURRENT HISTORY goes to press,
that a great English offensive in Flan-
ders and France is about to begin. This
fact makes interesting the official re-
port for the five months, ended May 19,
1916, by General Sir Douglas Haig, Brit-
ish Commander in Chief in France. In
this report engagements which in the
press were designated as " fierce drives "
are called " sharp local actions " — near
Hooge, the Bluff, St. Eloi, Wulverghem,
Hulluch, the Hohenzollern Redoubt, Kink,
and Vermelles. The Canadians had sev-
eral bloody encounters near Zillebeke,
east of Ypres, which at first went against
them, but they subsequently recovered
much of the lost ground.

General Haig's report indicates that
the English at that time defended a sec-

594 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

lor ninety miles long, reaching from the
Belgian front, ten miles north of Ypres,
down through La Bassee to the Roye
Railway, south of the Somme, on a line
opposite Amiens. There were 450,000
British soldiers on the firing line, fronted
by 500,000 Germans. The English and
French do not keep more than one-third
of their forces exposed on a normally dor-
mant front, hence it is safe to estimate
the British at 1,350,000 men in the ninety
miles on May 19, and they doubtless have
since been reinforced. Opposite them
are 800,000 Germans of all ranks, with
500,000 rifles and 3,000 guns, and with
heavy reserves behind. It has been ob-
served that the Germans have rebuilt the
fortifications at Lille. Rochambeau,
Maubeuge, Herson, La Fere, and Laon,
while in the south \\ey have three lines
of defense to meet a p( ssible offensive
by the French in Champagne.

The heavy Russian drive in Russia is
thought to have been timed for tne long-
expected advance by the British in
France, and by the allied army from
Saloniki. June and early July bid fair to
be the bloodiest period of the war.
* * *

CHINA'S NEW PRESIDENT
fTlHE death of Yuan Shih-kai, Presi-
•*• dent of the Chinese Republic, which
occurred on June 6, promises to be a
blessing instead of a disaster to China.
When Yuan Shih-kai was chosen Presi-
dent of the new Government in Peking
his demonstrated abilities had earned him
the title of the " strong man of China."
His strength, however, began to wane as
soon as his personal ambitions began to
wax. When last year he metamorphosed
the republic into a monarchy, declaring
himself Emperor, a revolution broke out
in the southern provinces of the country.
For nearly a year Yuan Shih-kai tried
to subdue the rebellion, but its tide was
irresistible, and province after province
seceded from the Peking Government.
Yuan then thought it wise to return to
the republican form of government,
which he did three months ago in a
manifesto extraordinary in its self-
humiliating tone. But it was already too
late. The revolutionary leaders of the

South would have no more of him, and
a conference called in Nanking for the
purpose of effecting a compromise be-
tween the South and the North ended,
without achieving its aim, on May 27.

All the members of the Cabinet then
tendered their resignations to the Presi-
dent, but Yuan Shih-kai would not ac-
cept them. He offered to resign himself
as soon as a new Government had been
perfected. But before the world could
test his sincerity death overtook him,
and Li Yuan-hung, Vice President, suc-
ceeded him as President. Li Yuan-hung
has the complete confidence of the South.
As soon as he assumed office the rebel
provinces began to come back to the
Central Government, and peace in a re-
united China seems now to be assured.

* * *

LESS DRINKING IN LONDON

WAR has brought a remarkable de-
cline in drunkenness in London,
due to the restricted hours and the anti-
treating regulations. The following fig-
ures compiled by The London Telegraph
show a wonderful change in the weekly
average of convictions for drunkenness in
the London district, containing a popu-
lation of 7,000,000:

1909 881 1916-4 weeks' aver-

1910 940 age ending:

1911 1,075 January 30 591 5

1912 1,152 February 27 614

1913 1,259 March 26 579

1914 1,301 April 23 559.5

1915 (6 months).. 1,084 May 21 497.5

The natural explanation would be that
the falling off is due to the absence at
the front of so large a proportion of,
men, but this is offset by the extra
spending power of those at home; more-
over, there has been a steady and per-
ceptible increase in the sale of non-
intoxicating ales at licensed premises.

* * *

THE FUTURE OF POLAND

SINCE the famous proclamation of
the Grand Duke Nicholas, then
Commander in Chief of the Russian
armies, in regard to the restoration of
Poland after the war, little has been
said by Russian Government officials on
the subject. This silence has added to
the anxiety of the Poles and their friends

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

595

throughout the world. Recently, however,
there is to be noticed a marked change
in the attitude of the Russian Govern-
ment toward the Polish question. Thus,
a short time after M. Sturmer became
Premier of Russia he declared to the
Petrograd correspondent of Le Journal,
Paris, that the program outlined by the
Grand Duke will be executed in its en-
tirety after peace is concluded in Europe.
Sergius Sazonoff, Russia's Foreign Min-
ister, in an interview with the corre-
spondent of The London Times, has now
spoken with his habitual fire on the
Government's intentions as to the future
of Poland. " That Poland will receive a
just and equitable autonomy in the
greatest degree, adjusted to its future
life and its economic and industrial de-
velopment," says M. Sazonoff, "is cer-
tain. The Poles and the friends of the
Poles may, therefore, look to the Rus-
sians for the dawn of a new era and a
period of unexampled development which
will follow the inevitable successful con-
clusion of the war."

* * *

WAR A CURE FOR STRIKES

THERE is abundant evidence in Ger-
many that war is the most efficient
solvent of labor disputes yet known. The
official figures of the Imperial Statistical
Bureau at Berlin show that the year 1915
witnessed the smallest number of strikes
and lockouts ever recorded. Only 11,639
persons took part in strikes, and only
1,227 were affected by lockouts in all
Germany during that year, and the dis-
putes were of very brief duration. The
total time lost during seventeen months
of war by 14,950 strikers was 9305-6
working days, or an average of 5.57 days
for each of the 167 disputes which oc-
curred between employer and employe;
during the twelve months of 1915 the
average time lost per disagreement was
3.45 working days; the average in five
years before the war was 34.16 days lost
in each dispute. These data prove the
close supervision over labor and industry
maintained by the German authorities, a
state of rigorous regulation not ap-
proached in any other belligerent or neu-
tral country.

RANK AND FILE IN WAR

ARNOLD F. GRAVES, an English
librettist; has reduced to doggerel a
stirring narrative of British deeds in
Flanders, which voices the spirit of the
rank and file. A few extracts will indi-
cate the attitude of the English fighting
man toward the grimmest aspects of war.
Of battle strategy he says:

A battle is a jimble-jumble,
A mixem-g-atherum, rough and tumble ;
And while you're fighting like a cat,
You don't know what the deuce they're at.

In describing the British advance after
the German retreat from Paris, he says:
And now I'll tell you what we did
Old Cock-a-doodle-do to kid —
With one French 'army we changed places ;
And when he found no longer traces r

Of English troops upon his right,
He thought he'd licked us out of sight,
And clean across our front was trekking,
The country like a pirate wrecking.
He was a goose not to detain
The British troops behind the Seine,
Till he had joined his Forces so
As he could strike a knockout blow.

He pays his respects to the Kaiser in
these words :

Satan himself to roast his soul
Forever in a sulphur bowl.
I'd like to stand beside t'ould joker
And stir him with a red-hot poker.

His " Soldier's Funeral " has a strong
note all its own:

A soldier's Funeral is brave ;

And when he's carried to the grave,

How fine you'd feel to be his son !

His bier borne stately on a gun :

No coaches, plumes, or hearses black,

He sleeps beneath the Union Jack,

Beneath the Flag for which he fought :

An honor never to be bought.

The gunners' nags their proud necks arch,

The band strikes up the funeral march,

And as they draw him down the street,

Wrapped in his royal winding-sheet,

Each passer stands and bares his head,

And says a prayer for him that's dead.

On May 23 the British Parliament
voted its eleventh credit since the war
began, the sum this time authorized be-
ing $1,500,000,000. The following have
been the votes since August, 1914: Three
votes in the first year, aggregating $1,-
810,000,000; six votes in the second year,
(1915-16,) aggregating $7,100,000,000;
two votes in 1916, (Feb. 21 and May 23,)
aggregating $3,000,000,000; total during
the war, $11,910,000,000. In the fifty
days ended May 23 the average rate of
expenditure was $24,100,000 a day. The
new vote will meet the requirements only
until the first week in August. The daily
expenses have slightly declined, and are
now estimated at $23,750,000 a day.

Interpretations of World Events

Kitchener of Khartum

THE British Empire, as we know it,
is extremely young. Only in 1858
did the wide realm of India come directly
under the crown; a decade later the
Dominion of Canada came into being;
then came large spaces in East and West
Africa. With the twentieth century
came the constitution of the Australian
Commonwealth. Almost at the same
time the Boer republics were added to
the empire, and, within a few years,
incorporated in the Union of South
Africa — like Canada and Australia, a
splendid modern piece of constitution
building. Since the beginning of the
war there have been great accessions —
Egypt, Southwest Africa, Eastern New
Guinea, with further gains in sight.
(Togoland and the Cameroons may go,
it appears, to the huge colonial empire
of France.)

Within the life-span of Kitchener,
every change above recorded has taken
place. Born in 1850, he was eight years
old when modern India came into being,
superseding the old East India Company.
He saw the constitution-building of Can-
ada when he was preparing to enter the
army as an engineer. The whole de-
velopment has taken place before his
eyes. And at every point of the vast
empire, at every point, at least, where
disaster threatened, Kitchener's hand
was felt, Kitchener's power was de-
cisively shown. After early work in
Palestine and then in Cyprus (just
added by Disraeli to the empire) he
cast in his lot with Egypt, which, with
its huge back country, the Sudan, is now
practically within the empire. From
Egypt he went to South Africa, which
has so proudly proved its reconciliation
and its loyalty. From Africa he went
to India, where likewise devotion to Eng-
land has triumphed over all temptations
to revolt; from India he went again to
Egypt; then, in the last act of his im-
perial life, he undertook the defense, not
of outlying possessions of the empire,
but of the heart of the empire itself

of that ancient England from which all
the rest has sprung.

And this defense he prepared and per-
fected by calling for unprecedented sac-
rifices, asking England to give up the
cherished tradition of a volunteer army;
asking from the manhood of England
the heavy sacrifice of long months of
arduous military training, with the pros-
pect of foreign service, of death on for-
eign soil, as the end of it. In some sense,
and in a deep sense, England is paying
this high price for the sake of France,
since the British Isles and the wide
spaces of the empire seem very well
protected by the fleet; but, in the last
analysis, the fate of England is bound
up with the principles for which France
is staking her life, and the future life
of England requires the future power
and liberty of France. It is the highest
honor of Kitchener — the final honor
added to many high honors — that he
from the first saw the danger to the
empire in the white light of reality, and
that he had both the courage to call for
the great sacrifices which that danger
rendered necessary and the authority to
inspire his countrymen with the will to
sacrifice. No man can be compared with
him in achievement for the empire, and
therefore for the wide and ordered lib-
erty that is the life-breath of the empire.

A Ruse of War

A STORY which reminds us of the
"- battles of earlier centuries comes
from the Galician front. The first suc-
cessful blow against the Austrian lines,
we are told, was made sure of success
by a ruse. The Russians opened up a
bombardment of the Austrians, of con-
siderable violence, but not much more so
than on previous occasions. After main-
taining this for several hours, they sud-
denly stopped. The Austrians, expect-
ing an attack, moved up their machine
guns and bomb throwers and assembled
their troops in the forward trenches. At
some points even cavalry was concen-
trated close to the front. When the Rus-

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

597

sian aeroplane observers reported that
the enemy positions were crowded with
troops, the artillery opened again, this
time with a destructive fire such as the
Austrians had seldom been called upon
to withstand. This storm of shells
caused such slaughter and demoralization
that when the attack by the Russians
began they swept forward with com-
paratively little difficulty. We ought to
be grateful for a story like that. It re-
minds us of more romantic, more imagi-
native days: of all the feints and ruses
recorded by the annalists of old. It lets
us see, too, that the Russians use in
war the same powers of imagination and
invention which went to the making of
Turgenieff and Dostoevski and Tolstoy,
to mention creators in one field alone.
The outstanding thing about the Eng*
lish commanders, to take a point of con-
trast still among the Allies, seems to
be that they lack imagination, and this
seems to synchronize with a period of
dry streams in English poetry and other
writing. The only two men of imagina-
tion in England seem to be Lloyd George
and Winston Churchill ; and it seems im-
possible to keep Churchill at the front.
But how refreshing to read of that Rus-
sian ruse, after plodding through the
dull, mechanical, battering-ram strategy
of the attack against Verdun!

Galicia and Bukowina

WHILE at Verdun the German Corwn
Prince is beating out the life of
the Teutonic army against the impreg-
nable defenses of the French, the eastern
battle front has been the most brilliant
and spectacular event of the last twelve
months of the war, in the overwhelm-
ingly swift advance of Russia through
Volhynia toward Poland, through Podolia
toward Galician Lemberg, and through
the northern half of the Austrian crown-
land of Bukowina.

The southern two-thirds of the field
of Russia's advance — Galicia with Buko-
wina— form a single geographical region,
walled off from the rest of Austria and
from Hungary by the high Carpathian
Mountains. The division between Ga-
licia and Bukowina is merely a line on
the map; there is no natural or ethnical

boundary. This whole region, then, is in
reality the drainage-valley of the great
River Dniester, which flows across it
from northwest to southeast. From the
Carpathian valleys rivers flow down into
it on the right ; from Russian Podolia and
Northern Galicia rivers flow (almost due
south) into the Dniester on the left side.
With its tributaries, the Dniester valley
is an exact picture of a beech-leaf, the
Dniester being the midrib of the leaf,
while the tributaries are the veins.
Hence, with the perpetual crossing of
parallel streams — the Zlota Lipa, the
Stripa, and the rest, each of which has
its own rich life and its traditions — this
is a hard field to fight over; it is a
heartbreaking field to retreat over, with
shaken and dislocated armies.

Consider the position of Czernowitz,
the capital of Bukowina. Close to the
west bank of the Pruth, it is reached,
from the world beyond the Carpathians,
by one railroad only, which comes down
from the northwest, following the trend
of the river valley. And now, while the
Austrians have been stubbornly defend-
ing the outposts of Czernowitz to the
east, the Russians, passing northwest of
the city, have crossed the main stream
of the Pruth some miles higher up,
and have cut the railroad at Sniatyn, the
one way of retreat for the Czernowitz
garrison. This garrison, which had pro-
claimed the delaying strategy of the Rus-
sian force to the east of the city an
Austrian triumph and a Russian
" check," now finds itself bottled up by
the cutting of the railroad, and faced
with three alternatives: either to re-
main and be slowly pounded to pieces
between two Russian forces, knowing
that relief is hopeless; or to flee to the
west, up the steep Carpathian valleys
and passes, with Cossack horsemen at
their heels, or to surrender, and join the
growing Austrian " colony " within the
Czar's dominions. A choice between
disasters, with the added knowledge of
the threatened revolt of Rumania from
Teutonic leading, with the probable
crushing of Bulgaria — which is already
hastily shifting forces from Saloniki to
the Danube — the possible surrender of
bankrupt Turkey, and the breakdown of

598 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the painfully built bridge to Bagdad and
India. All together, an unpleasant out-
look for the garrison of Czernowitz.

Two Points of Naval Tactics

IN the admirable narrative of the
Battle of Jutland, published in Glas-
gow and included in this issue, two points
stand out in a startling way. The first
is this : The Germans could see the Brit-
ish distinctly outlined against a light yel-
low sky. The Germans, covered by a
haze, could be very indistinctly made out
by the English gunners. The hour ac-
counts for that. It was nearly 5 in
the afternoon, and the British ships, to
the west of their adversaries, were
sharply silhouetted against the sunset.
The east was already gathering the even-
ing gloom. It is a picturesque touch, a
graphic word picture, and would be a
fine point of color for a chiaroscuro bat-
tle painting. But it is something more.
It is a revelation to us that, in these
days of long-range guns (and the firing
at Jutland began at twelve miles) it is
as important to " get the light " of your
adversary as it used to be, in the days
of " wooden walls " and sailing warships,
to " get the wind " of him.

Clearly, it is sound tactics for the Eng-
lish fleet, which will naturally hold the
western station, to engage the German
fleet in the early morning only, when the
sky over the low coast-line of Denmark
and Schleswig-Holstein is lit up with the
sunrise. Equally clearly, it is to the
interest of the Germans to bring on a
naval fight in the late afternoon. This
they in fact did; showing that, as was
pointed out in an article in a former
issue, they pay close heed to " the psy-
chology of the weather." Admiral Jelli-
coe and Admiral Beatty should learn by
heart the German proverb : " Morgen
Stunde hat Gold in Munde " — " Morning
hour hath gold in mouth," and should
insist on having the German warships
clear cut against the gold of sunrise.

The second point we wish to call atten-
tion to has a strong and somewhat sin-
ister significance. It is indicated in the
following passage of the Glasgow nar-
rative: Beatty immediately also turned
right round sixteen points so as to bring

his ships parallel to the German battle-
cruisers and facing in the «ame direc-
tion. Just before the turning point was
reached, the Indefatigable sank, and the
Queen Mary and the Invincible also were
lost at the turning point, where, of course,
the (German) High Seas Fleet concen-
trated their fire. The turning point — it
is an astonishing phrase. So the Eng-
lish battle cruisers steamed around a
fixed point, just as if they had been
racing yachts rounding a buoy. And,
" of course," the Germans were acute
enough to notice this extraordinary fact,
and " concentrate their fire " in the
neighborhood of the imaginary buoy, in
this way alone bringing about the high
losses of the British fleet.

One calls to mind other facts. First,
that the Lusitania was submarined while
going over the identical course that she
had habitually followed in time of peace ;
apparently fifty yards or so from the
point she invariably passed, so that a
fixed mine with a time-clock might almost
have replaced the submarine, which had
only to go to the " lane " the Lusitania
always followed, and quietly wait for her.
Second, that the Hampshire, on the fatal
voyage which cost England the life of
her greatest soldier, was announced as
following the same course she had taken
on several earlier trips between the Ork-
ney Islands and the White Sea. Here,
once again, it was simply a question of
waiting by the roadside for the inevitable
coming of the traveler.

There is, however, one compensating
fact; for, in the Glasgow dispatch we
are told that the Barham, Valiant, and
Malaya turned short so as to avoid the
danger spot where the Queen Mary and
the Invincible had been lost. So far,
good : but it irresistibly follows that, had
the Queen Mary and the Invincible also
turned short, they also would have been
saved. The point deserves prayerful
consideration by our own Admirals.

Beginning of the Austrian Debacle

FALLEN on evil days: on evil days
fallen, and evil tongues " — some
such phrase may well characterize the
present fate of the aged Kaiser Franz
Josef, now nearly 90, who, reigning since

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

699

1848, has suffered every dire disaster that
can befall humanity. The proudest and
haughtiest of men, he saw his age-old
empire first beaten in war by upstart
Prussia, then practically torn in two by
the uprising of Hungary, then overshad-
owed by the brand-new Hohenzollern
Empire, and finally tied to the chariot-
wheel of the young, forceful power to
the north. In his personal life he might
stand as a central figure of the Greek
drama of Nemesis, another Oedipus or
Priam. His favorite brother was shot
under the walls of Mexico; his favorite
sister was burned to death in the dread-
ful fire at the Charity Bazaar in Paris;
his son met a mysterious death, probably
by his own hand; his wife was murdered.
His grandnephew and heir was killed at
Serajevo — and still the old man's pride
was unbroken; haughtily, he sent his
orders to the independent Kingdom of
Serbia, haughtily he plunged all Europe
into war, in satisfaction of that pride.
And now comes the time to pay. In
spite of famine and national bankruptcy,
a supreme effort was made to smash
the resistance of Italy, so long the vic-
tim of Austrian oppression; and it
seemed, for a few days, that victory was
coming there. From the Trentino, from
the Cadore and Carnia sectors, came
favorable news, only to be broken upon
— as calamity came thick upon Job — by
the news of ride disaster in the east,
at the hands of Russia, whom Franz
Josef defied in July, 1914. One-half of
his army, it is announced, already de-
stroyed or captured, surrendering in
whole battalions and regiments at a
time; and now, in the Trentino, also,
fatal reverses. It is impossible not to
feel a certain pity for the decrepit, hard,
implacable old man whose pride is bring-
ing his empire and himself to ruin.

The Sorrows of King Constantine

/CABLES from Athens reveal the posi-
^ tion of King Constantine of Greece
as being in the last degree difficult,
not to say perilous. The course in which
he has steered the Hellenic ship of state,
under the inspiration, it is supposed, of
the Hohenzollern Princess whom! he mar-
ried, is showing itself to be pregnant

with disaster. On May 27, as a result
of a " deal " with the Teutonic Powers —
that is, with his brother-in-law, Kaiser
Wilhelm — King Constantine directed the
officers of his army to give up to the
Bulgarians, led by German officers,
Forts Rupel, Dragotin and Spatovo, in
the Struma valley, due north of the
centre of the British position at Sa-
loniki. In two directions came an instant
reaction: the Allies blockaded his ports,
and the Athenian population rose against
him, openly protesting that he had sold
Greek interests to the Germans, and
had allowed the detested Bulgarians to
occupy the sacred soil of Greece. For
the act of his officers, the King is im-
mediately responsible, since he is Com-
mander in Chief of the army, and his
Minister, Skouloudis, is governing with-
out a Parliament and without the pre-
tense of holding a Parliamentary ma-
jority. It is openly charged that the
party in Athens which is supporting
"the right of the crown" thus to deal
with the fate of the Greek Nation is
directed and paid by Germany. But th3
woes of Constantine do not end here. The
blockade of the Allies was accompanied
by the request that he should at once
demobilize his army, and this he has
been compelled to do, while it was in
fact through the army that he had main-
tained his unconstitutional position for
many months. He is now left in the air.
Naturally, the only course left open was
to fly; so he has fled to Larissa; never,
perhaps, to return. Finally, the cost of
keeping the army mobilized has bank-
rupted Greece, and the Teutons cannot
help her, while the Allies, in view of
Constantino's ambiguous policy, will not.

Russia's Naval Force in the Black Sea

THE rapidity with which Russia can
drive westward toward her historic
goal, Constantinople, from her Erzerum-
Trebizond base very largely depends on
her naval force in the Black Sea. In
the approach to Trebizond, and in the
taking of Trebizond itself, the land
forces were effectively supported by the
navy; and, as the road westward to
Constantinople practically runs along the
sea shore, the navy can co-operate at

600

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

every step of the way, besides keeping
the water route open for the arrival of
supplies and munitions from Southern
Russia. It is, therefore, important to
know just what naval forces Russia dis-
poses of there. At the outbreak of the
war Russia had, in the Black Sea, (and
locked up in the Black Sea, by a treaty
which forbade them to pass the Bos-
porus,) seven battleships of a certain
age, five of which were in sufficiently
good shape to engage in active, offensive
operations; these five, running from
9,000 to 13,000 tons displacement, have
a primary battery of 12-inch guns; there
are also two protected cruisers, displac-
ing 6,700 tons, and with a speed of
twenty-two knots; these larger ships
were supplemented by two dozen destroy-
ers, ranging from 350 to 1,100 tons, and
from twenty-six to thirty-one knots; and
there were, in addition, a dozen torpedo
boats of from 100 to 250 tons; to these
should be added eight or ten submarines,
some of which were fitted out for mine-
laying. Besides these somewhat anti-
quated boats, the larger of which date
from before the Russo-Japanese war,
there were in construction, at Sebastopol
or Nikolaieff, a group of much more
modern and powerful ships; three dread-
noughts of the type of the Imperatritsa
Mariya, displacing 23,000 tons, making
twenty-one knots, and carrying twelve
12-inch guns; two swift cruisers dis-
placing 6,800 tons, of the Admiral Laza-
reff type; nine new torpedo-boat de-
stroyers and six submarines. It seems
certain that two of these new dread-
r oughts, the Imperatritsa Mariya and the
Imperator Alexander III. or the Impera-
tritsa Ekaterina, are already in com-
mission, and probably also one of the
new cruisers; very probably also the five
destroyers, and two or three of the new
submarines. Russia is also well equipped
with scout ships and hydro-aeroplanes in
the Black Sea. It is evident, then, that
th^ Russian land forces, marching by
way of Sinope to Constantinople, along
the very road traversed by Xenophon's
Ten Thousand, will have effective back-
ing so far as sea power is concerned.

Problem of the Austrian Generals
"HETROGRAD dispatches announced,
•t in the middle of June, that in the
preceding fortnight the Russian troops
had captured some 160,000 Austro-Hun-
garian soldiers " and one General." There
is something mysterious in the combina-
tion. For the captures are equivalent
to four full army corps, which would
have, to begin with, four Generals com-
manding corps; then twice as many
Generals commanding divisions, (half
corps;) and yet twice as many Gen-
erals of brigade, (half divisions;) or
twenty-eight Generals in all. One was
captured. Where are the twenty-seven?
It will be remembered that, when Prze-
mysl capitulated, in the early Spring of
1915, several Generals were captured,
besides the commander of the fort; prac-
tically the full complement of division
and brigade commanders. A dispatch
from Petrograd suggests a solution: The
small number of commanding officers
captured in proportion to the number of
soldiers is attributed by military experts
to the confusion existing in the Austrian
armies, due to the suddenness and energy
of the Russian drive. It shows, it is
argued, that the officers lost control of
the men and abandoned them to their
fate at critical moments. If this be so,
and otherwise the mystery remains in-
soluble, then the name of the " one Gen-
eral captured," who did not "leave his
men to their fate," should be given to
the world, and added to the war's roll
of honor. For anything more unsoldierly
than the conduct of a general officer
(or, indeed, any officer) who abandoned
his men to their fate, while he himself
made a " strategical withdrawal," it
would be difficult to imagine. If there
be in reality any such spirit in the Aus-
tro-Hungarian Army, the extraordinary
totals announced by the Russian General
Staff become more explicable. It will
be remembered that, when Przemysl
surrendered, there were stories of of-
ficers lounging in hotels, while their
men starved in the trenches. Let the
name of the " one General " be given to
the world.

The Greatest Naval Battle

Narrative of the Historic Engagement in the North Sea
Between German and British Fleets

WHETHER the North Sea battle
of May 31 shall go down in
history as the Battle of Jut-
land or as the Battle of the
Skagerrak may depend upon the outcome
of the war and the nationality of the
dominant historian, but under any name
it will be known to future generations as
the greatest naval engagement thus far
in modern history, as judged by lives lost,
tonnage engaged, and values destroyed.
Yet it was an indecisive battle, calling,
perhaps, for a still greater one to follow.

For nearly two years the British Grand
Fleet had been watching in the mists of
the North Sea for a chance to engage the
German High Seas Fleet, which lay se-
cure in the Baltic behind the mine fields
and coast defenses of Heligoland and the
Kiel Canal. The world had almost
ceased to expect the great naval battle
which had been looked for daily in the
early weeks of the war. Suddenly, in the
afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, a Brit-
ish battle cruiser squadron under Admi-
ral Sir David Beatty, scouting about sev-
enty-five miles off the Danish coast and
the entrance to the Skagerrak, sighted a
part of the German High Seas Fleet ap-
proaching in battle array. It was in
command of Vice Admiral Reinhard
Scheer, with Vice Admiral Hipper in
charge of the German cruiser squadron.
BOTH EAGER TO FIGHT

Without hesitation on either side the
titanic struggle was joined, the first
shots being exchanged at a distance of
twelve miles. Soon the whole German
fleet came in sight, and the British cruis-
er squadron, built for speed, and not in-
tended for direct conflict with the heavier
battleships, found itself for a time out-
matched, but did not flinch.

Calling by wireless for Admiral Jelli-
coe's Grand Fleet, then several hundred
miles away to the northwest, Admiral
Beatty on his flagship Lion and Admiral
H. A. L. Hood on his flagship Invincible

led the attack upon the enemy. Fortu-
nately for them, they were supported by
four new superdreadnoughts, which fig-
ure in the dispatches as " the Elizabeths."
They were the Queen Elizabeth, War-
spite, Barham, and Malaya, four of the
five monsters launched last year, ships of
27,500 tons displacement, heavily arm-
ored, and carrying fifteen-inch guns. Be-
ing only a few miles away, they were
soon in the fight, and played an impor-
tant part in it, though greatly outnum-
bered by the dreadnoughts of the German
fleet.

A TEMPEST OF DEATH

Throughout the waning afternoon and
the long northern evening the battle
raged amid a hurricane of sound, as the
two fleets steamed swiftly in battle for-
mation past each other, most of the time
at a distance of eight miles — a compara-
tively short range for high-power guns —
each vessel pouring forth an endless
stream of great explosive shells aimed
with the deadly skill of modern instru-
ments of precision. A shell plunged
through the steel armor of the swift bat-
tle cruiser Queen Mary, her magazine ex-
ploded, and the splendid ship, almost the
latest of its class, buckled up and sank
like a stone with its thousand men. The
Indefatigable went next, in much the
same way, and a little later the Invinci-
ble, with gallant Admiral Hood and his
crew of 750 men, was sent to the bottom.

The armored cruiser Warrior was help-
less and rapidly being pounded to pieces
by the concentrated fire of several heavy
German ships when the Warspite dashed
in, circled around it, took the brunt of the
attack, and saved the crew of the War-
rior, though that vessel sank on the way
to port. It is not strange that the Ger-
mans refused later to believe that the
Warspite itself escaped after what it
passed through.

In the German fleet also brave men
were giving up their lives. The battle

602 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

cruiser Liitzow, a match for the Queen
Mary in size and power, was among those
that never returned to Kiel. So were the
battleship Pommern and three smaller

cruisers. The Frauenlob, struck by a

. . . , ,

torpedo in the night, went down in ten

minutes with all but eight of its crew.

The tide of battle favored the Ger-
mans until 6 o'clock in the evening, when
Admiral Jellicoe and the heavy dread-
noughts of the Grand Fleet arrived and
turned the odds of weight and metal in
favor of the British. For nearly four
hours the British battle cruisers had held
their own against superior strength.

With the arrival of the main British
fleet the Germans gradually withdrew
toward their base, keeping up a running
fight, until Admiral Jellicoe thought it
unwise to follow further in the direction
of the enemy's mine fields. Through the
remainder of the night the " mosquito
fleets" of both navies-the frail but
deadly little destroyers whose stings are

torpedoes — harassed the enemy and did

, T - « i_ • • i
further damage by dint of heroic risks

,, . , ... , , , . ,.

and lavish sacrifice of their own lives.

The next day the German fleet re-
turned to its base claiming a victory, and
the British fleet returned to its station
near the Orkneys, also claiming a virtual
victory, holding that its loss of fourteen
vessels and 6,000 men was counterbal-
anced by a corresponding amount of dam-
age done to the enemy. The battle of
words that followed is thus far as inde-
cisive as the fight off the Skagerrak, as
it is impossible to tell whether one or both
sides may not still be concealing losses.
The damage admitted in official reports
at the present writing is as follows:
ADMITTED LOSSES-BRITISH

Name. nage. sonnel.*

Queen Mary (battle cruiser). 27,000 1,000

Indefatigable (battle cruis-

Invincible' '(battle' cruiser) '. '. '. 17^ ?HO

Defense (armored cruiser)... 14,600 755

Warrior (armored cruiser).. 13,550 704
Black Prince (armored cruis-

Tipperary (destroyer) ....... 1,850 150

Turbulent (destroyer) ....... 1,850 150

Shark (destroyer) ........... 950 100

Sparrowhawk (destroyer)... 950 100

Ardent (destroyer) .......... 950 100

Fortune (destroyer) ......... 950 100

Nomad (destroyer) .......... 950 100

Nestor (destroyer) ........... 950 100

BRITISH TOTALS
Battle cruisers .............. 63,000

Armored cruisers ............ 41,700 2,163

Degtroyers .................. 9;400 900

Feurteen ships ........... 114,100 5,613

ADMITTED LOSSES-GERMAN

Ton_ Per_

Name. nage. sonnel.f

Liitzow (battle cruiser) ..... 26,600 $1,200
Pommern (battleship) ....... 13,200

<™>;;;: - 1 J™ *%

Elbing (cruiser) ............. 5,000 $450

Rostock (cruiser) ............ 4,900 373

Five destroyers. ...... ....... ^5,000 $500

BatUe cruiserg .^.^.^^soo 1,929

cruisers .................... 18,215 1,537

Destroyers .................. 5,000 500

"*•• - • ........ 63'015

survivors' TMany survivor..

, . .. , , .

The Germans reported the destruction

... , „,

of the British superdreadnought War-

., , ,. ," ,, „ , ,

spite and battleship Marlborough, but

. ,, *, , ,

these vessels, though damaged, were later

announced by the British Admiralty to
be gafe in port> The Britigh insisted) on
the other hand> that the German dread.
noughts Hindenburg and Westfalen were
gunk> besideg one submarine and several
additional destroyers. These losses are
denied by the Germans< The official re-
portg Qn both sideg> giyen below> contain
many irrecOncilable statements, and are
largely concerned with attempts to esti-
mate the losgeg of the enemy> The Ger.
man offidal figureg for the human losges
Qn both gideg are ag follows:

T°TAL L°SSES °F MEN

BU1TISH

Dead or missing
,^- -, ,

6,104

T t 1 6617

Dead Qr m °E«M^N § _ § 2 414

TTT , ,

^ ounded .............. ................. _

T t 1 2 863

LOSS IN MONEY VALUE

(Rough estimate.)
British ............................ $115,000,000

German ........................... 63,000,000

Total .......................... $178,000,000

THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE

603

GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORT
The first German Admiralty report of
the battle was issued on Thursday, June
1, and reads as follows:

Berlin, June 1, 1916.

During an enterprise directed to the north-
ward our high sea fleet on May 31 encoun-
tered the main part of the English fighting
fleet, which was considerably superior to our
forces.

During the afternoon, between Skagerrak
and Horn Riff, a heavy engagement devel-
oped, which was successful to us, and which
continued during the whole night.

In this engagement, so far as known up to
the present, there were destroyed by us the
large battleship Warspite, the battle cruisers
Queen Mary and Indefatigable, two armored
cruisers, apparently of the Achilles type ; one
small cruiser, the new flagships of destroyer
squadrons, the Turbulent, Nestor, and Alcas-
ter, a large number of torpedo-boat destz^oy-
ers, and one submarine.

By observation, which was free and clear of
objects, it was stated that a large number of
English battleships suffered damage from our
Ships and the attacks of our torpedo-boat flo-
tilla during the day engagement and through-
out the night. Among others, the large bat-
tleship Marlborough was hit by a torpedo.
This was confirmed by prisoners.

Several of our ships rescued parts of the
crews of the sunken English ships, among
them being two and the only survivors of the
Indefatigable.

On our side the small cruiser Wiesbaden, by
hostile gunfire during the day engagement,
and his Majesty's ship Pommern, during the
night, as the result of a torpedo, were sunk.

The fate of his Majesty's ship Frauenlob,
which is missing, and of some torpedo boats,
which have not returned yet, is unknown.

The HigluSea Fleet returned today (Thurs-
day) into our port.

BRITISH OFFICIAL REPORT
The first report of the British Admi-
ralty was issued a day later, and is as
follows :

London, June 2, 1916.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 31st of
May, a naval engagement took place off the
coast of Jutland.

The British ships on which the brunt of the
fighting fell were the battle cruiser fleet and
some cruisers and light cruisers, supported
by four fast battleships. Among these the
losses were heavy.

The German battle fleet, aided by low visi-
bility, avoided a prolonged action with our
main forces. As soon as these appeared on
the scene the enemy returned to port, « though
not before receiving severe damage from our
battleships.

The battle cruisers Queen Mary, Indefati-
gable, and Invincible, and the cruisers De-
fense and Black Prince were sunk.

The Warrior was disabled, and after being
towed for some time had to be abandoned by
her crew.

It is also known that the destroyers Tip-
perary, Turbulent, Fortune, Sparrowhawk,
and Ardent were lost, and six others are not
yet accounted for.

No British battleships or light cruisers were
sunk.

The enemy's losses were serious. At least
one battle cruiser was destroyed and one was
severely damaged. One battleship is reported
to have been sunk by our destroyers.

During the night attack two light cruisers
were disabled and probably sunk.

The exact number of enemy destroj'ers dis-
posed of during the action cannot be ascer-
tained with any certainty, but must have
been large.

Later this further statement was pub-
lished:

Since the foregoing communication was is-
sued a further report has been received from
the Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet
stating that it has now been ascertained that
our total losses in destroyers amount to eight
boats in all.

The Commander in Chief also reports that
it is now possible to form a closer estimate of
the losses and the damage sustained by the
enemy fleet.

One dreadnought battleship of the Kaiser
class was blown up in an attack by British
destroyers and another dreadnought battle-
ship of the Kaiser class is believed to have
fceen sunk by gunfire. Of three German bat-
tle cruisers, two of which are believed were
the Derfflinger and the Liitzow, one was
blown up, another was heavily engaged by
our battle fleet and was seen to be disabled
and stopping, and the third was observed to
be seriously damaged.

One German light cruiser and six German
destroyers were sunk, and at least two more
German light cruisers were seen to be dis-
abled. Further repeated hits were observed
on three other German battleships that were
engaged.

Finally, a German submarine was rammed
and sunk.

A SECOND STATEMENT
The Chief of the German Admiralty
Staff issued this secondary statement on
June 3 :

In order to prevent fabulous reports, it is
again stated that in the battle off Skagerrak
on May 31 the German high sea forces were
in battle with the entire modern English fleet.

To the already published statements it must
be added that, according to the official Brit-
ish report, the battle cruiser Invincible and
the armored cruiser Warrior were also de-
stroyed.

We were obliged to blow up the small cruis-
er Elbing, which, on the night of May 31-
June 1, owing to a collision with other Ger-
man war vessels, was heavily damaged, and

604 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

it was impossible to take her to port. The
crew was rescued by torpedo boats, with the
exception of the commander, two other offi-
cers, and eighteen men, who remained aboard
in order to blow up the vessel. According- to
Dutch reports they were later brought to
Ymuiden on a tug and landed there.

« GERMAN ACCOUNTS FALSE "

The British Admiralty's next state-
ment, dated June 4, impugns the truth of
the German report in these terms:

The Grand Fleet came in touch with the
German High Seas Fleet at 3 :30 on the after-
noon of May 31. The leading ships of the two
fleets carried on a vigorous fight, in which
the battle cruisers, fast battleships, and sub-
sidiary craft all took an active part.

The losses were severe on both sides, but
when the main body of the British fleet came
into contact with the German High Seas
Fleet, a very brief period sufficed to compel
the latter, who had been severely punished,
to seek refuge in their protected waters. This
manoeuvre was rendered possible by low visi-
bility and mist, and, although the Grand
Fleet were now and then able to get in mo-
mentary contact with their opponents, no con-
tinuous action was possible. They continued
the pursuit until the light had wholly failed,
while the British destroyers were able to
make a successful attack upon the enemy
during the night.

Meanwhile, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, hav-
ing driven the enemy into port, returned to
the main scene of the action and scoured the
sea in search of disabled vessels. By noon
the next day, June 1, it became evident that
there was nothing more to be done. He re-
turned, therefore, to his bases, 400 miles
away, refueled his fleet, and in the evening1
of June 2 was again ready to put to sea.

The British losses have already been fully
stated. There is nothing to add to or sub-
tract from the latest account published by the
Admiralty. The enemy losses are less easy to
determine. That the accounts they have given
to the world are false is certain, and we can-
not yet be sure of the exact truth. But from
such evidence as has come to our knowledge,
the Admiralty entertains no doubt that the
German losses are heavier than the British,
not merely relatively to the strength of the
two fleets, but absolutely.

There seems to be the strongest ground for
supposing that included in the German losses
are two battleships, two dreadnought battle
cruisers of the most powerful type, two of the
latest light cruisers, the Wiesbaden and El-
bing; a light cruiser of the Rostock type, the
light cruiser Frauenlob, nine destroyers, and
a submarine.

To this was added the following on
June 6:

An official statement given out in Berlin
today, signed " Fleet Command," claims the
British lost the Warspite, Princess Royal,

Birmingham, and Acasta in the action of
May 31. This is claimed on the evidence of
British sailors picked up by German ships.

This is false. The complete list of British
losses is as published.

The German Admiralty, in an official state-
ment issued on June 2, stated that, among
other casualties, a British submarine was
sunk in the course of the battle during the
afternoon and night of May 31.

All British submarines at sea on that date
have now returned. It must, therefore, be as-
sumed, if any importance is to be attached to
the German official statement, that the sub-
marine sunk was an enemy submarine. This
vessel should be added to the list of German
losses stated in the British Admiralty com-
munique of June 4.

LUETZOW AND ROSTOCK

An official German statement admit-
ting the loss of the Liitzow and Rostock
was issued June 8. The losses of the
British are again said to have been
heavier than admitted by them. The of-
ficial writer continues:

It is asserted, for instance, that the German
fleet left the battlefield and that the English
fleet remained master of the battlefield. "With
regard to this it is stated that by repeated,
effective attacks of our torpedo-boat flotillas
during the battle on the evening of May 31
the English main fleet was forced to turn
around, and it never again came within sight
of our forces. In spite of its superior speed
and reinforcement by an English squadron
of twelve vessels, which came up from the
southern North Sea, it never attempted to
come again into touch with our forces to con-
tinue the battle or attempt in conjunction
with the above-mentioned squadron to bring
about the desired destruction of the German
fleet.

The English assertion that the English fleet
in vain attempted to reach the fleeing Ger-
man fleet in order to defeat it before reach-
ing its home points of support is contradicted
by the alleged official English statement that
Admiral Jellicoe, with his Grand Fleet, al-
ready had reached the basin of Scalpa Flow,
in the Orkneys, 300 miles from the battlefield,
on June 1.

Numerous German torpedo-boat flotillas
sent out after the day battle for a night at-
tack toward the north, and beyond the theatre
of the day battle, did not find the English
main fleet in spite of a keen search. More-
over, our torpedo boats had an opportunity
of rescuing a great number of English sur-
vivors of the various sunken vessels.

As further proof of the fact, contested by
the English, of the participation of their en-
tire battle fleet in the battle of May 31, it is
pointed out that the British Admiralty report
too announced that the Marlborough had been
disabled. Furthermore, one of our subma-
rines on June 1 sighted another of the Iron

THE GREATEST NAVAL BATTLE

605

Duke class heavily damaged steering toward
the English coast. Both mentioned vessels
belonged to the English main fleet.

In order to belittle the great German suc-
cess the English press also traces the loss of
numerous English vessels largely to the effect
of German mines, submarines, and airships.
Regarding this, it is especially pointed out
that neither mines, which, by the way, would
have been just as dangerous to our own fleet
as to that of the enemy, nor submarines were
employed by our High Seas Fleet. German
airships were used exclusively for reconnois-
sance on June 1.

The German victory was gained by able
leadership and by the effect of our artillery
and torpedo weapons.

Until now we have refrained from contra-
dicting many of the alleged offfcial English
assertions regarding the German losses. The
latest assertion, again and again repeated, is
that the German fleet lost not less than two
vessels of the Kaiser class, the Westfalen,
two battle cruisers, four small cruisers, and a
great number of torpedo-boat destroyers.
Moreover, the British indicate that the Pom-
mern, which we reported lost, is not the ship
of the line of 13,000 tons from the year 1905,
but a modern dreadnought of the same name.
We State that the total loss of the German
high sea forces during the battle of May 31-
June 1 and the following time are : One battle
cruiser, one ship of the line of older construc-
tion, four small cruisers, and five torpedo
boats. Of these losses, the Pommern, launched
in 1905; the Wiesbaden, Elbing, Frauenlob,
and five torpedo boats already have been re-
ported in official statements. For military
reasons, we refrained until now from making
public the losses of the vessels Liitzow and
Rostock.

In view of the wrong interpretation of this
measure, and, moreover, in order to frustrate
English legends about gigantic losses on our
side, these reasons must no longer be regard-
ed. Bath ships were lost on the way to the
harbor, to be repaired after attempts to keep
the badly damaged vessels afloat had failed.
The crews of both, including all the severely
wounded, are safe.

While the German list of losses is herewith
closed, there are positive indications at hand
that the actual British losses were materially
higher than admitted. It has been established
by us on the basis of our own observations
and of what has been made public, as well as
from statements of British prisoners, that, in
addition to the Warspite, the Princess Royal
and Birmingham were destroyed. According
to reliable reports, the dreadnought Marlbor-
ough also sank before reaching harbor.

The high sea battle of the Skagerrak remains
a German victory, which it already was even
if the conclusions were based solely on the
losses of ships admitted officially by the
British. The total loss of 69,720 tons of Ger-
man warships stands against that of 117,750
tons for the British.

CHIEF OF THE ADMIRALTY STAFF.

JELLICOE TO HIS MEN

In a message to the men of the British
fleet, given out officially on June 12, Ad-
miral Sir John Jellicoe declared that the
glorious traditions handed down by gen-
erations of gallant British seamen had
been most worthily upheld, and that he
was more proud than ever of command-
ing a navy manned by such officers and
men. He added:

Weather conditions that were highly un-
favorable robbed the fleet of the complete
victory expected by all ranks. Our losses
were heavy. We miss many most gallant
• comrades. But although it is difficult to ob-
tain accurate information as to the enemy's
losses, I have no doubt we shall find they
certainly were not less than our own. Suf-
ficient information already has been received
for me to make that statement with confi-
dence.

Mr. Asquith also spoke in a similar
vein on June 14 in an address celebrating
the thirtieth anniversary of his election,
to the House of Commons:

Owing to the rashness of the enemy we
were allowed to see another and more stir-
ring, dramatic aspect of the navy's qualities
a fortnight ago. The naval action of May
31 was worthy of the best and most treas-
ured traditions of the British Navy. The
Germans were driven back into their ports
without so much as making an effort to
grapple with the main body of our Grand
Fleet, and had the temerity to claim what
really was a rout as a complete victory.
A couple more such victories and there will
be nothing left of the German Navy worth
speaking about. The truth is slowly leak-
ing out, and its full extent is not yet realized
or appreciated. Our command of the seas,
so far from being impaired, has been more
firmly and unshakably established.

GERMANY'S REPLY

To Jellicoe's assertion that Germany's
losses were as great as those of Britain
the Admiralty at Berlin retorted on June
15 with the following definite figures:

Against this we point out the comparison
of losses officially published on the 7th, show-
ing a total loss in tonnage of German war
vessels of 60,720, against the British loss ot
117,150, where only those English vessels and
destroyers were taken into account whose
losses until now have been officially admitted
on the English side.

According to statements of English pris-
oners, further vessels were sunk, among them
the dreadnought Warspite.

No other German vessels were lost than
those made public. They are the Liitzow,

606 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Pommern, Wiesbaden, Frauenlob, Elbing,
Rostock, and five torpedo boats. This shows
that the human losses to the English in the
battle were considerably greater than the
German.

While from the English side the officer
losses announced were 343 dead or missing
and 51 wounded, our losses in officers, engi-
neers, sanitary officers, paymasters, ensigns,
and petty officers, are 172 dead or missing
and 41 wounded.

The total losses among the English crews
as far as published by the Admiralty are
6,104 dead or missing, 513 wounded. On the
German side the losses are 2,414 dead or
missing, 449 wounded.

During and after the battle our vessels res-
cued 177 English, while up to now no Ger-
man prisoners from this battle are known
to be in English hands. The names of the
English prisoners will be communicated to
the British Government in the usual manner.

British Semi-Official Story of Great Sea Fight

Thus far the best informal British account of the battle of Jutland in detail is that which
appeared in The Glasgow Herald and which evidently has official authority behind it.

FIRST PHASE, 3:30 P. M., May 31.—
Beatty's battle cruisers, consisting
of the Lion, Princess Royal, Queen
Mary, Tiger, Inflexible, Indomitable, In-
vincible, Indefatigable, and New Zealand,
were on a southeasterly course, followed
at about two miles distance by the four
Queen Elizabeths.

Enemy light cruisers were sighted and
shortly afterward the head of the Ger-
man battle cruiser squadron, consisting
of the new cruiser Hindenburg, the Seyd-
litz, Derfflinger, Liitzow, Moltke, and
possibly the Salamis.

Beatty at once began firing at a range
of about 20,000 yards, (twelve miles,)
which shortened to 16,000 yards (nine
miles) as the fleets closed. The Germans
could see the British distinctly outlined
against the light yellow sky. The Ger-
mans, covered by a haze, could be very
indistinctly made out by our gunners.

The Queen Elizabeths opened fire on
one after another as they came within
range. The German battle cruisers
turned to port and drew away to about
20,000 yards.

Second Phase, 4 :40 P. M. — A destroyer
screen then appeared beyond the German
battle cruisers. The whole German High
Seas Fleet could be seen approaching on
the northeastern horizon in three divi-
sions, coming to the support of their bat-
tle cruisers.

The German battle cruisers now turned
right round 16 points and took station in
front of the battleships of the high fleet.

Beatty with his battle cruisers and sup-

porting battleships, therefore, had before
him the whole of the German battle fleet,
and Jellicoe was still some distance away.

The opposing fleets were now moving
parallel to one another in opposite direc-
tions, and but for a master manoeuvre
on the part of Beatty the British advance
ships would have been cut off from Jelli-
coe's grand fleet. In order to avoid this
and at the same time prepare the way so
that Jellicoe might envelop his adver-
sary, Beatty immediately also turned
right around 16 points, so as to bring his
ships parallel to the German battle cruis-
ers and facing in the same direction.

As soon as he was around he increased
to full speed to get ahead of the Ger-
mans and take up a tactical position in
advance of their line. He was able to do
this owing to the superior speed of our
battle cruisers.

Just before the turning point was
reached, the Indefatigable sank, and the
Queen Mary and the Invincible also were
lost at the turning point, where, of
course, the High Seas Fleet concentrated
their fire.

A little earlier, as the German battle
cruisers were turning, the Queen Eliza-
beths had in similar manner concentrated
their fire on the turning point and de-
stroyed a new German battle cruiser,
believed to be the Hindenburg.

Beatty had now got around and headed
away with the loss of three ships, racing
parallel to the German battle eruisers.
The Queen Elizabeths followed behind,
engaging the main High Seas Fleet.

COMMANDERS IN NORTH SEA BATTLE

Admiral Horace Hood, Who
Went Down With the Invincible
(Photo © Underwood & Underwood.)

Admiral Sir David Beatty, Com-
mander of Squadron That Bore
the Brunt of the Fighting
(© American Press Association.)

Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Com-
mander in Chief of the British

Fleet
(© Elliott rf Fry.)

Admiral von Capelle, Successor

to Admiral von Tirpitz as Head

of the German Navy

WARSHIPS SENT TO THE BOTTOM

The Hampshire, British Armored Cruiser, Sunk by a Mine Off the Orkneys

With Lord Kitchener and £taff
(Photos from Underwood & Underwood.)

The Pommern, German Battleship, 13,200 Tons

;

The Queen Mary, British Battle Cruiser, 27,000 Tons

BRITISH SEMI-OFFICIAL NARRATIVE OF THE BATTLE 607

Third Phase, 5 P. M.— The Queen Eliza-
beths now turned short to port 16 points
in order to follow Beatty. The Warspite
jammed her steering gear, failed to get
around, and drew the fire of six of the
enemy, who closed in upon her.

I am not surprised that the Germans
claim her as a loss, since on paper she
ought to have been lost, but as a matter
of fact, though repeatedly straddled by
shell fire with the water boiling up all
around her, she was not seriously hit, and
was able to sink one of her opponents.
Her Captain recovered control of the
vessel, brought her around, and followed
her consorts.

In the meantime the Barham, Valiant,
and Malaya turned short so as to avoid
the danger spot where the Queen Mary
and the Invincible had been lost, and for
an hour until Jellicoe arrived fought a
delaying action against the High Seas
Fleet.

The Warspite joined them at about 5:15
o'clock, and all four ships were so suc-
cessfully manoeuvred in order to upset
the spotting corrections of their oppo-
nents that no hits of a seriously disabling
character were suffered. They had the
speed over their opponents by fully four
knots, and were able to draw away from
part of the long line of German battle-
ships, which almost filled up the horizon.

At this time the Queen Elizabeths were
steadily firing at the flashes of German
guns at a range which varied between
12,000 and 15,000 yards, especially
against those ships which were nearest
them. The Germans were enveloped in
a mist, and only smoke and flashes were
visible.

By 5:45 half of the High Seas Fleet
had been left out of range, and the
Queen Elizabeths were steaming fast to
join hands with Jellicoe.

I must, now return to Beatty's battle
cruisers. They had succeeded in out-
flanking the German battle cruisers,
which were, therefore, obliged to turn a
full right angle to starboard to avoid
being headed.

Heavy fighting was renewed between
the opposing battle cruiser squadrons,
during which the Derff linger was sunk;

but toward 6 o'clock the German fire
slackened very considerably, showing
that Beatty's battle cruisers and the
Queen Elizabeths had inflicted serious
damage on their immediate opponents.

Fourth Phase, 6 P. M. — The Grand
Fleet was now in sight, and, coming up
fast in three directions, the Queen Eliza-
beths altered their course four points
to the starboard and drew in toward the
enemy to allow Jellicoe room to deploy
into line.

The Grand Fleet was perfectly manoeu-
vred and the very difficult operation of
deploying between the battle cruisers and
the Queen Elizabeths was perfectly
timed.

Jellicoe came up, fell in behind Beat-
ty's cruisers, and, followed by the dam-
aged but still serviceable Queen Eliza-
beths, steamed right across the head of
the German fleet.

The first of the ships to come into
action were the Revenue and the Royal
Oak with their fifteen-inch guns, and the
Agincourt, which fired from her seven
turrets with the speed almost of a Maxim
gun.

The whole British fleet had now be-
come concentrated. They had been per-
fectly maneouvred, so as to " cross the
T " of the High Seas Fleet, and, indeed,
only decent light was necessary to com-
plete their work of destroying the Ger-
mans in detail. The light did improve
for a few minutes, and the conditions
were favorable to the British fleet, which
was now in line approximately north and
south across the head of the Germans.

During the few minutes of good light
Jellicoe smashed up the first three Ger-
man ships, but the mist came down, visi-
bility suddenly failed, and the defeated
High Seas Fleet was able to draw off
in ragged divisions.

Fifth Phase, Night.— The Germans
were followed by the British, who still
had them enveloped between Jellicoe on
the west, Beatty on the north, and Evan
Thomas with his three Queen Elizabeths
on the south. The Warspite had been
sent back to her base.

During the night our torpedo boat de-
stroyers heavily attacked the German

608

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ships, and, although they lost seriously
themselves, succeeded in sinking two of
the enemy.

Co-ordination of the units of the fleet
was practically impossible to keep up,
and the Germans discovered by the rays
of their searchlights the three Queen
Elizabeths, not more than 4,000 yards
away. Unfortunately they were then able
to escape between the battleships and
Jellicoe, since we were not able to fire,
as our own destroyers were in the way.

So ended the Jutland battle, which was
fought as had been planned and very

nearly a great success. It was spoiled
by the unfavorable weather conditions,
especially at the critical moment, when
the whole British fleet was concentrated
and engaged in crushing the head of the
German line.

It was an action on our part of big
guns, except of course for the destroyer
work, since at a very early stage our
big ships ceased to feel any anxiety from
the German destroyers. The German
small craft were rounded up by their
British opponents and soon ceased to
count as an organized body.

German Semi-Official Narrative

A semi-official account of the battle of
the Skagerrak, issued in Berlin on June
5, gives a very different version of cer-
tain aspects of the fight, especially of the
number of vessels engaged on both sides:

THE German High Seas Fleet had
pushed out into the North Sea in
the hope of engaging portions of
the English fleet, which had recently
been repeatedly reported off the Nor-
wegian south coast. At 3:15 o'clock in
the afternoon, some seventy miles off the
Skagerrak, some small cruisers of the
Calliope class were sighted. Our cruisers
at once pursued the enemy, which fled
northward at highest speed.

At 5:20 o'clock our cruisers sighted two
enemy columns to the west, consisting of
six battle cruisers and a great number of
small cruisers. The enemy passed toward
the south, and our ships, approaching to
nineteen kilometers, opened very effec-
tive fire on south-southeastern courses.
During the battle two English battle
cruisers and one destroyer were sunk.

After half an hour's fighting heavy
enemy reinforcements, later observed to
be five vessels of the Queen Elizabeth
class, were sighted to the north. Soon
afterward the German main force entered
the fight, and the enemy at once turned
north.

The British commander, driving his
ships at full speed, attempted to evade

our extremely effective fire by taking an
echelon formation. Our fleet followed at
top speed the movements of the enemy.
In the course of this period of the fight-
ing one cruiser of the Achilles or Shan-
non class and two destroyers were sunk,
while a number of other vessels suffered
heavy damage.

The battle against superior forces
lasted until darkness fell. Besides numer-
ous light detachments, at least twenty-
five British battleships, six battle cruis-
ers, and four armored cruisers engaged
sixteen German battleships, five battle
cruisers, six older ships of the line, and
no armored cruisers.

After dark our flotillas opened a night
attack. During this attack several cruiser
and torpedo boat engagements occurred,
resulting in the destruction of one battle
cruiser, one cruiser of the Achilles class,
probably two small cruisers, and at least
ten destroyers. Six of the latter, includ-
ing the new destroyer leaders, the Turbu-
lent and the Tipperary, were destroyed
by the leading vessels of our High Seas
Fleet.

The British squadron of older battle-
ships, which hurried up from the south,
did not arrive until Thursday morning,
after the conclusion of the battle, and
returned without taking any part in the
fighting or coming within sight of our
main force.

Kaiser and King Thank Their Naval Fighters

In an address at Wilhelmshaven on
June 6 Emperor William congratulated
the sailors of the German Navy on their
achievement in the North Sea in the fol-
lowing terms:

WHENEVER in past years I visit-
ed my fleet at Wilhelmshaven
I always rejoiced from the depths
of my heart at the sight of the growing
fleet and the growing harbor. I looked
with satisfaction upon the young crews
drawn up in the drill shed, ready to take
the oath. Many thousands of you I have
seen eye to eye with your supreme com-
mander when taking the oath. He re-
minded you of your duty, your task, but
above all of the fact that when the Ger-
man fleet went to war it would have to
fight against gigantic odds.

This consciousness has become a tradi-
tion with the fleet, as it has been with
the army from the time of Frederick the
Great. Prussia, as well as Germany, has
always been surrounded By superior ene-
mies. Therefore it was possible to forge
our nation into one mass, which hoarded
up in itself endless forces ready to let
loose when necessity demanded.

When the great war came envious
enemies suddenly attacked the Father-
land. The army, by desperate fighting
against powerful foes, slowly conquered
them one after another. But the fleet
waited in vain for a real fight. In nu-
merous individual encounters the navy
clearly demonstrated its heroic spirit, but
was forced to wait month after month
for a general battle.

Repeated efforts were made to bring
the enemy out, but they proved fruitless
until the day finally came last week when
the gigantic fleet of Albion, ruler of the
seas since Trafalgar was fought 100
years ago, appeared in the open, sur-
rounded by a nimbus. Instantly our fleet
engaged this superior British armada,
and with what result ? The English fleet
was beaten. The first big blow was dealt
the English fleet, whose tyrannical su-
premacy was shattered.

The news electrified the world and
caused unprecedented jubilation every-

where that German hearts beat. Your
success in the North Sea fight means
that you have added a new chapter to
the history of the world. God Almighty
steeled your arm and gave you clear eyes
to accomplish this.

I, standing here today as your supreme
War Lord, thank you from the bottom of
my heart. As the representative of the
Fatherland I thank you, and in the name
of my army I bring you its greetings be-
cause you have done your duty unselfish-
ly and only with the one thought that the
enemy must be beaten.

At a time when the enemy is slowly
being crushed before Verdun and when
our allies have driven the Italians from
mountain to mountain, you add new
glories to our cause. The world was pre-
pared for everything, but not for the vic-
tory of the German fleet over the Eng-
lish. The start which you have made will
cause fear to creep into the bones of the
enemy. What you have done you did for
the Fatherland, that in the future it may
have freedom of the seas for its com-
merce. Therefore I ask you to join me in
three cheers for our dearly beloved Fa-
therland.

On the occasion of King George's birth-
day, June 3, Admiral Jellicoe sent him the
heartfelt good wishes of the Grand Fleet,
to which the English King replied:

I am deeply touched by the message
you have sent in behalf of the Grand
Fleet. It reaches me on the morrow of
a battle which once more displayed the
splendid gallantry of the officers and
men under your command.

I mourn the loss of the brave men,
many of them personal friends of my
own, who have fallen in their country's
cause. Yet even more do I regret that
the German High Seas Fleet, in spite of
its heavy losses, was enabled by misty
weather to evade the full consequences
of the encounter.

They always professed a desire for a
battle, for which, when the opportunity
arrived, they showed no inclination.
Though the retirement of the enemy im-

610 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

mediately after the opening of a general
engagement robbed us of the opportunity
of gaining a decisive victory, the events
of last Wednesday amply justify my
confidence in the valor and efficiency
of the fleet under your command.

GEORGE R. I.

The German Emperor sent this message
to Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, former
Minister of the Navy (recently succeeded
by von Capelle) ;

After visiting my fleet, which returned
victoriously from a heavy battle, I feel
I must again declare to you my imperial
thanks for what you have performed in
my service in the technical domain and
the domain of organization. Our ships
and weapons upheld themselves brilliant-
ly in the battle in the North Sea. It is
also for you a day of glory.

To Grand Admiral von Koester, former
commander of the German Navy, the
Kaiser sent this message:

From the fleet flagship, the old fleet
chief, my imperial salutations. You laid
the foundation for the careful employ-
ment of all weapons and the tactical
training of the fleet. Building on your
work and cultivating the spirit implanted
by you, your successors have further de-
veloped the fleet to a living war instru-
ment that stood so brilliantly its trial
fire. The consciousness of having sowed
such seed must be a great source of
gratification to you.

[The German Emperor has promoted
Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, com-
mander of the German fleet in the en-
gagement of May 31, to be a full Admiral.
Scheer had assumed temporary command
when the late Admiral von Pohl was
forced to resign on account of illness.
Vice Admiral Hipper has been awarded
the Order Pour le Merite, and war deco-
rations of various kinds have been be-
stowed upon officers and men who dis-
tinguished themselves in the battle.]

Germany's Only Direct News Connection with the American

Continents

Since the outbreak of the war, when all German cables were cut, the wire-
less station at Sayville, L. I., has been the sole means of communication — free
from British censorship — between Germany and the United States. The Sayville
station works direct with the station at Nauen, just outside of Berlin, daily,
except for frequent static interruptions. Since the plant wras seized by the
Federal Government no commercial business has been permitted. The dispatches
are confined to Government and official communications, a portion of which are
the German war bulletins furnished daily to The Associated Press. The plant
is now inclosed by a great fence with only one gate, and is guarded by a platoon
of United States soldiers, and all matter is censored by an American officer,
although the operators are Germans.

Fate of Lord Kitchener

FIELD MARSHAL LORD HO-
RATIO HERBERT KITCHEN-
ER, the British Secretary of
State for War, perished with his
staff off the West Orkney Islands on June
5 by the sinking of the British cruiser
Hampshire, which struck a mine and
went down fifteen minutes later. The
entire crew was also lost except twelve
men — a warrant officer and eleven sea-
men— who were found half dead from
cold and exhaustion on a raft washed
ashore the following day.

Earl- Kitchener was en route to Russia
at the request of the Russian Govern-
ment. He intended to land at Archangel
and visit Petrograd, expecting to be back
in London by June 20. He was accom-
panied by Hugh James O'Beirne, former
counselor of the British Embassy at Pe-
trograd; 0. A. Fitzgerald, his military
secretary; Brigadier Gen. Ellershaw, and
Sir Frederick Donaldson, all of whom
were lost. Sir William Robertson, Chief
of the Imperial Staff, had taken over the
duties of the office during his absence,
and at this writing is still in charge. It
is reported that the office of Secretary
of War has been tendered to David Lloyd
George, Minister of Munitions.

The tragic death of Earl Kitchener
created a profound sensation throughout
the world. It was not until a week later
that the details of the tragedy became
known. Leading Seaman ' Rogerson, one
of the twelve survivors, described Lord
Kitchener's last moments as follows:

Of those who left the ship and have sur-
vived I was the one who saw Lord Kitchener
last. He went down with the ship. He did
not leave her. I saw Captain Savill help
his boat's crew to clear away his galley. At
the same time the Captain was calling to
Lord Kitchener to come to the boat, but
owing to the noise made by the wind and
sea Lord Kitchener could not hear him, I
think.

When the explosion occurred Kitchener
walked calmly from the Captain's cabin, went
up the ladder and on to the quarterdeck.
There I saw him walking quite collectedly,
talking to two of the officers. All three were
wearing khaki and had no overcoats on.
Kitchener calmly watched the preparations

for abandoning the ship which were going on
in a steady and orderly way. The crew just
went to their stations, obeyed orders, and did
their best to get out the boats, but it was im-
possible. Owing to the rough weather no
boats could be lowered. Those that were got
out were smashed up at once. No boats left
the ship. What people on the shore thought
tot be boats leaving were rafts.

Men did get into the boats as these lay in
their cradles, thinking that as the ship went
under the boats would float. But the ship
sank by the head, and when she went she
turned a somersault forward, carrying down
with her all the boats and those in them.

I do not think Kitchener got into a boat.
When I sprang to a raft he was still on the
starboard side of the quarterdeck talking with
the officers. From the little time that elapsed
between my leaving the ship and her sinking,
I feel certain Kitchener went down with her
and was on deck at the time she sank.

Of the civilian members of his suite I saw
nothing. I got away on one of the rafts,
and we had a terrible five hours in the water.
It was so rough that the seas beat down on
us and many men were killed by the buffet-
ing. Many others died from the piercing cold.
I was quite numbed, and an overpowering
desire to sleep came upon us. To keep this
away we thumped each other on the back,
for the man who went to sleep never woke
again.

When men died it was just as though they
were falling asleep. One man stood upright
for five hours on the raft with the dead lying
all around him. One man died in my arms.

As we got near the shore the situation grew
worse. The wind was blowing on shore. The
fury of the sea dashed our raft against the
rocks with tremendous force. Many were
killed in this way, and one raft was thrice
overturned. I don't quite know how I got
ashore, for all the feeling was gone out of me.
We were very kindly treated by the people
who picked us up. They said it was the
worst storm they had had for years.

The British Admiralty on June 15
issued the following official statement:

From the report of the twelve survivors of
the Hampshire the following conclusions were
reached :

As the men were going to their stations
before abandoning the ship Lord Kitchener,
accompanied by a naval officer, appeared.
The latter said : " Make way for Lord Kitch-
ener." Both ascended to the quarterdeck.
Subsequently four military officers were seen
there, walking aft on the port side.

The Captain called Lord Kitchener to the
fore bridge near where the Captain's boat
was hoisted. The Captain also called Lord

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Kitchener to enter the boat. It is unknown
if Lord Kitchener entered it or what hap-
pened to any boat.

The Hampshire was proceeding along the
west coast of the Orkneys. A heavy gale
was blowing and seas were breaking over the
ship, which necessitated her being partly bat-
tened down. Between 7 :30 and 7 :45 P. M.
the vessel struck a mine and began at once
to settle by the bows, heeling over to star-
board before she finally went down, about
fifteen minutes after.

Orders were given by the Captain for all
hands to go to their established stations for
abandoning ship. Some of the hatches were
opened and the ship's company went quickly
to their stations. Efforts were made, with-

out success, to lower some of the boats. One
of them was broken in half and its occupants
were thrown into the water.

Large numbers of the crew used lifesaving
belts and waistcoats, which proved effective
in keeping them afloat. Three rafts were
safely launched and, with about fifty to
seventy men on each, got clear. It was day-
light up to about 11. Though rafts with these
large numbers of men got away, in one case,
out of seventy men aboard, only six survived.
The survivors all report that the men grad-
ually dropped off, even died aboard the rafts
from exhaustion and exposure to cold. Some
of the crew must have perished in. trying to
land on the rocky coast after such a long
exposure. Some died after landing.

General BrusilofPs Achievements

Written for CURRENT HISTORY

By Charles Johnston

[See map of Russian front on Page 635]

DURING the first week of June
General Alexei Brusiloff began
and carried forward one of the
most brilliant feats of the war,
accomplishing something that has been
deemed almost impossible, a swift, suc-
cessful offensive against the strongest
modern intrenched lines. He operated
on a front over a hundred miles long,
against trenches which, at many points,
were defended by a dozen or more lines
of barbed wire entanglements; trenches
which lay one behind the other, some-
times ten or twelve in number, defended
by strong Austrian artillery — and all
along, the Austrians have had the
heaviest guns in the war — and held by
six or seven hundred thousand men; lines
further strengthened by the two great
fortresses of Lutsk and Dubno, which,
with Rovno, formed the famous " Vol-
hynia triangle," comparable to the group
of French defenses that' link Verdun and
Toul.

Not only did General Brusiloff sweep
these bristling obstacles out of exist-
ence, capturing in ten days 115,000 men
of the enemy forces, killing or wounding,
in all probability, twice as many more,
(or 345,000 in all put out of action,)
taking enormous quantities of war ma-

terial, (guns, machine guns, shells,
cartridges, trench mortars, barbed wire,
enough to supply a modern army,) but
he further drove the enemy back, at
some points as much as thirty miles,
along a front of over 100 miles — in
striking contrast to the static situation
at Verdun, where, to repeat the some-
what grim pleasantry of a French of-
ficer, " ground is bought in small lots
and the prices are high."

Roughly speaking, General Brusiloff's
battle line stretched from the southeast
corner of Russian Poland to the north-
east corner of Rumania; running, at the
beginning of the drive, through the
Russian " governments " of Volhynia
and Podolia, a thin slice of each having
been held by the invaders; but, as the
drive progressed, passing forward into
Galicia, sweeping around Brody, menac-
ing Tarnopol and Lemberg, and, to the
south, enveloping and in all probability
effectively occupying Czernowitz, the
oft-disputed capital of the Austrian
Crownland of Bukowina, " land of the
beech trees." As his left wing rests on
Rumania it cannot be turned, or even
effectively menaced, without involving
Rumania in the war; his right wing
joins very strong Russian forces under

GENERAL BRUSILOFF'S ACHIEVEMENTS

613

General Evert, one of the leaders in the
first Russian victory over the Austrian
army of General Dankl.

Exactly in what way General Brusiloff
has accomplished this military miracle,
tearing to pieces over a hundred miles of
the strongest modern trenches of the
"steel and concrete" type, is still his
secret. But we can already see this:
Like the French attack in Champagne
on Sept. 25 last, he first concentrated a
tremendous weight of gunfire on selected
points, pouring in "hurricanes" of shells;
he then followed this up with astonishing
infantry rushes, the men being provided
with planks and scaling ladders to help
them across what the artillery had left
of the barbed wire; and then, as soon as
a first foothold was won in the enemy
trenches, following this up instantly with
fresh hurricanes of shells and new
infantry drives, keeping this process up
without interruption day and night.
This he was able to do because he had,
first, quite unlimited supplies of shells,
and, next, because he had, what the
French have not had, unlimited supplies
of men. For Russia in the last few
months has added to her fighting forces
some 4,000,000 young men between the
ages of 19 and 22, while there are several
millions available in the twenties and
early thirties. It is the younger men,
it would appear, that General Brusiloff
is using in his "rushes"; and in this
kind of work no fighting man has ever
stood higher than the Russian soldier.

But, after we have counted guns and
men, there remains the third factor,
and the greatest — military genius rein-
forced by military science; the power to
divine the weak point and the golden
hour for attack, (the Austrians were
celebrating the Skagerrak fight when he
attacked;) the power to co-ordinate, to
have ample reserves ready and on the
spot at the critical instant, and, most
of all, the moral driving force to set
the whole machine in motion and to
keep it moving at top speed.

Having ripped up the curtain of Teu-
ton defenses, General Brusiloff (who is,
by training, a cavalry officer) brought
back into modern warfare an element
that seemed at one time to have grown

obsolete; he developed widely extended
and swiftly executed cavalry movements
that seem to have accounted for a very
large proportion of the captures, both
in men and guns. The details of his
strategy remain to be made known, but
it seems certain that General Brusiloff
has demonstrated that the whole sys-
tem of modern defensive (developed
first along the line of the Aisne, in the
second half of September, 1914) can be
torn out of the ground, and that cav-
alry can still attack, sweeping down
even on modern artillery and batteries
of machine guns; attack with complete
success and bring the batteries in as a
trophy.

It would be a complete mistake to
think of this brilliant achievement of
General Brusiloff as a kind of lucky
accident or a happy extemporization. It
is neither. He is completing work begun
in the first week of the war, along lines
he had laid down many months earlier;
he is doing again now, in the late Spring
and early Summer of 1916, practically
the same thing that he did, and did
brilliantly, in the late Summer and early
Autumn of 1914, over the same ground;
but he is doing it now with tried and
ripened experience, with a high reputa-
tion already assured, with supreme com-
mand over this whole sector of the war,
with immensely greater forces of men
and supplies of artillery; and, this must
not be forgotten, against a weakened
and harassed foe, behind whom, in the
home countries, are famine and despera-
tion.

General Brusiloff is now fighting over
ground which he very brilliantly covered
in the first weeks of the war. Austria
had sought war with Serbia already in
1913, and had then been held back by her
ally, Italy; Austria had already pre-
judged the case against the Serbians in
July, 1914, determining in advance not to
accept any concessions, however com-
plete, from Serbia, but to force the gal-
lant little kingdom into war ; Austria,
therefore, was the first of the nations to
mobilize, not only against Serbia to the
south, but also, in Galicia, against Rus-
sia. There were three Austrian armies
in Galicia at the end of July, each about

614 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

300,000 men — two active, under General
Dankl and General Auffenberg, and a
third, held in reserve, under the Arch-
duke Charles Francis Joseph, the heir ap-
parent to the throne of the Hapsburgs.
General Dankl struck northward in to Rus-
sian Poland, toward Lublin and Kholm,
where he was held in check by Russian
forces under General Ivanoff, General
Evert, and General Plehve. General Auf-
fenberg moved northeastward toward the
famous Volhynia triangle — Lutsk, Dubno,
Rovno. But he did not get across the
frontier. Already, on Aug. 11, Russian
cavalry made a demonstration against
Brody, the first Austrian town across
the Galician frontier, and this advance
guard was rapidly followed by two Rus-
sian armies, under General Ruzsky and
General Brusiloff, who began to rain
blows on Auffenberg's head.

Shortly before the beginning of the
war General Brusiloff had been given
command of the Twelfth Army Corps,
stationed at Vinnitza in Podolia, a little
town on the river Bug, and connected by
rail with Tarnopol, Halicz, and Lemberg
in Galicia. At that time General Ruzsky
was in command of the Kieff military
district in which Vinnitza is; General
Ruzsky therefore commanded the Rus-
sian army of the right, while General
Brusiloff commanded the army of the
left. Moving practically on the same line,
they came into touch with Auffenberg
on Aug. 23, and on Aug. 26-27 made a
furious, concerted attack against his en-
tire front, General Ruzsky moving
against Lemberg, while General Brusiloff
advanced toward the ancient historic city
of Halicz, some sixty or seventy miles
further south. They attacked the two
cities about the same time, carrying
them by storm on Sept. 2; and thus,
since this was a week before the decision
at the Marne, winning the first great
success for the Entente armies. Both
Generals were thanked by the Russian
Emperor and decorated.

Then came the forward sweep up
to and around Przemysl, the Russians
enveloping the enormous fortress and
pressing their adversaries back against
the Carpathians. It was evident even
then that Russia lacked adequate artil-

lery and ammunition; otherwise Przem-
ysl would have been taken by storm.
It held out, however, standing a not very
vigorous siege, and finally surrendering
in the Spring, surrendering only after
efforts had been repeatedly made for its
relief, Austria sending men up in masses
through the Lupka Pass, where the rail-
road from Hungary crosses the Car-
pathians.

General Brusiloff had fought his way
steadily westward, keeping the centre of
his army almost continuously on the
same line, due west from where he had
crossed the frontier, at Woloczysk. His
headquarters were now close to the little
town of Baligrad, fifteen or twenty miles
from the Lupka Pass. From this point
he planned and delivered a killing blow
against the Austrian reinforcements that
were coming down from the pass, and
the smashing of this relieving force was
what practically determined the fall of
Przemysl, with nearly 120,000 Austrian
troops. It was a decisive victory for the
Russians, but a victory of bayonets
rather than artillery.

During the long months of the white
Winter, 1914-15, General Brusiloff
fought his way toward and into the three
Carpathian passes — the Dukla to the
north, the Uzsok in the centre, the Lupka
to the south; and his long, fierce contest
in the snow against ice-covered precipices
and buttresses of rock anticipated many
of the most daring exploits of the Italian
Alpini in the Trentino, Cadore, and
Carnia in the Winter of 1915-16. Both
in the Carpathians and in the Caucasus
the Russians showed that they are mag-
nificently at home, even up to their
breasts in snow.

General Brusiloff was wearing down
General von Linsingen's resistance and
threatening a descent upon the wide
Hungarian plains, when to the north, on
his right, came the event which reversed
and almost neutralized his whole cam-
paign. General Mackensen, who is ap-
parently a soldier of genius, showing
far more ability than any other com-
mander on the Teuton side, made his
first famous attack on the Dunayetz
River, east of Cracow, with what we
are now familiar with as " hurricane

GENERAL BRUSILOFF'S ACHIEVEMENTS

615

fire." Then, just at the most dangerous
moment, it was discovered that Russia
was short of shells. Her enormous sup-
ply, accumulated before the war, was
depleted; difficulties with China made
Japan slow in sending forward, along the
Manchurian and Siberian Railroad, the
shells that she was producing; the White
Sea was frozen; the allied fleets had
hammered in vain at the gate of the
Dardanelles; Russian factories, dislo-
cated, depleted of men by the mobiliza-
tion, supplied ammunition only in drib-
lets; but Mackensen's strategy demanded,
to counter it, shells in vastly greater
quantities.

General Ruzsky, the victim, it was said,
of cancer, had been withdrawn to undergo
an operation; General Ivanoff, the de-
fender of Lublin, had taken his place.
So, with cold steel, the Russians held back,
so far as was possible, Mackensen's hur-
ricane attack, with the hottest and heav-
iest fire the war had yet seen, though it
has since been greatly exceeded by both
sides at Verdun. And, in times to come,
it may appear that this very hammering
was the making of the Russian Army.
But at the time there was only disastrous

retreat, the giving up of Przemysl, of
Lemberg; then of Warsaw, Lublin, Vilna.
General Brusiloff retreated, holding his
army splendidly together and never for
a moment losing his splendidly coura-
geous serenity; retreated, still fighting
hard for a foothold on Austrian soil, but
at last recrossing the frontier into Rus-
sia, still almost on the same east and
west line.

And now his tide has turned. He is in
supreme command. He has huge, fresh
armies of young, exultant troops, who
never weven consider death; he has enor-
mous supplies of guns and ammunition;
he has the enthusiastic trust of his sov-
ereign and his nation; he has military
genius, ripe experience, a religious faith
in his mission. Behind him lie the inex-
haustible resources of the vast Russian
Nation. Before him stretch the lands of
the enemy — Galicia, with Lemberg and
Halicz to be won once more; Bukowina to
the south, Russian Poland to the north,
and, beyond these, Transylvania, Hun-
gary, Silesia. He has begun magnifi-
cently. With magnificent resources and
a magnificent opportunity he will, per-
chance, go far.

What This War Means to France

By E. HENRY LACOMBE.

It would not be surprising to find that in the conglomerate mass of people
which has been swept into the United States from every quarter of the glob ^
there is no intelligent appreciation of what this war means to the people of
France. What it does mean, to all of them, is best expressed by the farewell of
the Breton mother, a sailor's widow, to her only son, a boy of 18. I have read it
in no periodical here, but it is known the length and breadth of France.

Theodore Botrel, " Chansonnier des Armees," has embalmed it is verse, and
it is sung by poilus in the trenches and on the march.

Noticing that her big boy was restless and unhappy, and divining the cause
— a conflict of duties — she said to him unasked: " Embrasse moi et vas-en, pour
la France. Elle est ta mere, mon enfant, quand moi, je ne suis que ta p'tito
maman."

There are millions of people yet in this country who can appreciate what a
spirit this signifies and hail it with reverence and sympathy. God grant that
should a day of bitter trial come to us there may be enough left of such a spirit
here to save us as, please God, it will save France.

— \ Mexico's Threat of War

Events That Have Produced Strained Relations With the

Carranza Government

REAL war between Mexico and the
United States seems an imminent
possibility as this issue of CUR-
RENT HISTORY goes to press.
President Wilson has called for the
mobilization of the available militia
of all the States, totaling about
100,000 men, and the hostile prepa-
rations of the Carranza forces, which
have been in progress for several
weeks, are being accelerated. It is an-
nounced that the American militia are to
be used at present only to guard the fron-
tier, but their coming will release the
regular army regiments on the border for
active service in Mexico — and General
Carranza has given formal warning that
further movements of American troops
into Mexico for any purpose will be op-
posed by armed force!

The situation is serious because each
country holds that its fundamental rights
are being violated. Mexican bandits
continue almost daily to invade American
soil and murder or rob our citizens. The
de facto Government of Mexico is unable
to stop the outrages, yet it resents the
presence of American troops on Mexican
soil, demands their withdrawal, and
threatens war if the raiders are hunted
down by our soldiers.

Events have been traveling toward the
present crisis for more than a month.
During the conference at El Paso be-
tween General Scott and General Obre-
gon in the early days of May it seemed
as though a satisfactory understanding
had been reached, by which order would
be maintained through the co-operation
of Mexican and American armies on
their respective sides of the border. But
at that moment came a raid by Mexican
bandits upon the citizens and garrison
of Glenn Springs, a town in the Big Bend
region of Texas, in which several Amer-
icans were killed and others carried into
captivity. A punitive expedition was
sent after them, and the episode became

typical of the events that have since
made it impossible to agree on any plan
compatible with American responsibility
and the demands of the Carranza Gov-
ernment.

Under date of May 22 General Car-
ranza sent a long note to the Washing-
ton Government protesting that no agree-
ment had ever been made authorizing the
protracted presence of American soldiers
on Mexican soil. The presence of our
troops at El Pino, sixty miles south of
the boundary, was the immediate basis
for that protest. The Big Bend raid was
the cause of the expedition in question.
Since then there have been two other
crossings of American troops into Mexi-
can territory, each time for the punish-
ment of a new depredation which the
Carranzistas had failed to prevent.

President Wilson answered Carranza's
note on June 20, covering its many
points in a message of some length. The
full text of both notes, reproduced in this
issue of CURRENT HISTORY, furnishes a
fairly complete history of the subject
from both points of view.

In the intervening month the situation
was steadily growing worse. Every few
days it was aggravated by the news that
another band of Mexican outlaws had
crossed the Rio Grande in the night, at-
tacked and killed citizens or soldiers, and
fled after losing one or more of their
number. Twice within one week at dif-
ferent points a dead bandit was found to
be wearing the uniform of a Carranza
soldier. Public sentiment on the Amer-
ican side of the river, along the whole
stretch of frontier between Columbus,
N. M., and Brownsville, Texas, became
deeply stirred, and at the same time anti-
American sentiment grew more intense
in Mexico.

On the night of June 16 fifty bandits
crossed the line at San Benito, Texas,
and attacked the town. They were re-
pulsed by a detachment of the Twenty-

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

617

sixth Infantry under Colonel Bullard,
and were pursued into Mexico by Lieu-
tenant Newman and Major Anderson
with troopers of the Third Cavalry. In
reporting that these forces had left on a
"hot trail" General Funston added: "I
anticipate fighting." This expectation
was based on the fact that at about the
same time Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing,
at his temporary headquarters near
Namiquipa, Chihuahua, had received a
telegram from General Jacinto Trevino,
commander of the Carranza Army of the
North, warning him that if any further
movement of the American forces al-
ready in Mexico were made toward the
south, east, or west it would be regarded
as a hostile act and resisted by the forces
of the de facto Government. It added
that if any more troops crossed the bor-
der into Mexico they would be attacked.

The particular fighting which General
Funston anticipated for the San Benito
expedition was avoided by a compromise.
After Major Anderson had dispersed the
bandits near San Pedro he returned to
the American side, having received the
promise of General Alfredo Ricaut, head
of the Carranzista garrison at Mata-
moros, to capture and punish the bandits
himself. But while in the act of return-
ing the American troops were fired upon,
and one of their assailants — in Carranza's
uniform — was killed.

The railways in Mexico have been
seized, bridges have been destroyed, and
other preparations made by the Carran-
zista forces to oppose the further passage
of American troops. General Obregon,
Minister of War, has sent out an order

calling upon all Mexicans to enlist under
the flag against foreign invaders.

On June 18 President Wilson called out
the militia through the Governors of all
the States, and Mr. Baker, Secretary of
War, announced the fact in the following
words :

Tn view of the disturbed conditions on the
Mexican border, and in order to assure com-
plete protection for all Americans, the Presi-
dent has called out substantially all the State
militia, and will send them to the border
wherever and as fully as General Funston
determines them to be needed for the pur-
pose stated.

If all are not needed an effort will be
made to relieve those on duty there from
time to time so as to distribute the duty.

This call for militia is wholly unrelated to
General Pershing's expedition, and contem-
plates no additional entry into Mexico, ex-
cept as may be necessary to pursue bandits
who attempt outrages on American soil.

The militia are being called out so as to
leave some troops in the several States.
They will be mobilized at their home sta-
tions, where necessary recruiting can be
done.

It is expected that practically 100,000
men, all drilled during the past year by
regular army officers, will be fully mobi-
lized by the beginning of July and ready
for service on the border. Both Govern-
ments meanwhile are trying to hold the
difficult situation within the realm of
diplomacy. The chief danger of a serious
clash is in the impulsive acts of armed
Mexicans if they undertake to interfere
with General Pershing's scouting opera-
tions, which naturally must continue in
all directions, despite the threatening
telegram in which General Trevino under-
took to dictate the movements of Amer-
ican troops.

Full Text of the Carranza Note

Mexico, D. F., May 22, 1916.
Mr. Secretary:

I AM instructed by the First Chief ' of the
Constitutionalist Army, in charge of
the executive power of Mexico, to ad-
dress your Excellency the following note:

1. The Mexican Government has just been
informed that a group of American troops,
crossing the international boundary, has en-
tered Mexican .territory and is at the present
time near a place called El Pino, located
about sixty miles south of the line.
The crossing of these troops effected again

without the consent of the Mexican Govern-
ment gravely endangers the harmony and
good relations which should exist between the
Governments of the United States and Mex-
ico.

This Government must consider the above
action as a violation of the sovereignty of
Mexico, and therefore it requests in a most
urgent manner that the Washington Govern-
ment should consider the case carefully in or-
der to definitely outline the policy it should
follow with regard to the Mexican Nation.

In order to afford a clear understanding of

618 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the basis of the request involved in this note,
it becomes necessary to carefully review the
incidents which have occurred up to the pres-
ent time.

REVERTS TO VILLA RAID

2. On account of the incursion at Columbus,
N. M., by a band led by Francisco Villa on
the morning of March 9, 191G, the Mexican
Government, sincerely deploring the occur-
rence, and for the purpose of affording effi-
cacious protection to the frontier, it advanced
its desire that the Governments of the United
States and Mexico should enter into an agree-
ment for the pursuit of bandits. The above
proposal was made by the Government of
Mexico guided by the precedent established
under similar conditions obtaining in the
years 1880 to 1884, and requested, in concrete,
a permission for Mexican forces to cross into
American territory in pursuit of bandits, un-
der a condition of reciprocity which would
permit American forces to cross into Mexican
territory, if the Columbus incident would be
repeated in any other point of the frontier
line.

As a consequence of this proposal made in
the Mexican note of March 10 the Govern-
ment of the United States, through error or
haste, considered that the good disposition
shown by the Mexican Government was suf-
ficient to authorize the crossing of the boun-
dary, and to that effect, without awaiting
the conclusion of a formal agreement on the
matter, ordered that a column of American
forces should cross into Mexican territory in
pursuit of Villa and his band.

3. The American Government, on this ac-
count, made emphatic declarations, assuring
the Mexican Government that it was acting
with entire good faith and stating that its
only purpose in crossing the frontier was to
pursue and capture or destroy the Villa band
that had assaulted Columbus ; that this action
did not mean an invasion of our territory, nor
any intention to impair Mexican sovereignty,
and that as soon as a practical result should
be obtained the American troops would with-
draw from Mexican territory.

MEXICO NOT NOTIFIED

4. The Mexican Government was not in-
formed that the American troops had crossed
the frontier until March 17, at which time it
was unofficially known, through private chan-
nels from El Paso, that the American troops
had entered into Mexican territory. This
Government then addressed a note to the
Government of the United States stating that,
inasmuch as the precise terms and convic-
tions of an agreement which should be for-
mally entered into between both countries for
the crossing of troops had not been stipulated,
the American Government should not consider
itself authorized to send the expedition.

The Washington Government explained the
sending of such expedition, expressing its re-
gret that a misinterpretation had occurred in
regard to the attitude of the Mexican Gov-

ernment concerning the crossing of American
troops over the boundary line in pursuit of
Villa, but that this had been done under the
impression that the previous exchange of mes-
sages implied the full consent of the Mexican
Government, without the necessity of further
formalities.

The American Government explained also
that its attitude was due to the necessity of
quick action, and stated that it was disposed
to receive any suggestions the Mexican Gov-
ernment would wish to make in regard to the
terms of a definite agreement covering the
operations of troops on either side of the
boundary.

5. Both Governments then began to discuss
the terms of an agreement in accordance to
which the reciprocal crossing of troops should
be arranged, and to this end two projects
from the Mexican Government and two coun-
terprojects from the American Government
were exchanged. During the discussion of
this agreement the Mexican Government con-
stantly insisted that the above-mentioned
crossing should be limited within a zone of
operations for the troops in foreign territory,
that the time the troops should remain within
it, the number of soldiers of an expedition
and the class of arms they should pertain to
should be fixed.

The Government of the United States ob-
jected to the above limitations, and when at
last the American Government submitted the
last counterdraft, accepting them in part,- it
stated, nevertheless, that while agreeing to
sign the agreement, the latter would not apply
on the Columbus expedition.

FIRST WITHDRAWAL REQUEST

6. This attitude of the American Govern-
ment brought forth the Mexican note of April
12, in which, deferring the discussion of the
agreement, since the latter was not to apply
to the Columbus case, the Mexican Govern-
ment requested the American Government to
withdraw its troops, since the stay of them
was not based on any agreement, and the ex-
pedtion was then unnecessary, inasmuch as
the Villa bandits had been 'dispersed and re-
duced to impotency.

7. While the American Government was de-
laying its reply to the aforesaid note of April
12, and took no action to withdraw its troops,
it was considered convenient that military
commanders of both countries should meet in
some point of the frontier to review the mili-
tary aspect of the situation and endeavor
through this channel to arrive at a satisfac-
tory solution, which on the part of Mexico
consisted in the withdrawal of American
troops from its territory.

To this end Generals Hugh L. Scott and
Frederick Funston, representing the Amer-
ican Government, and General Alvaro Obre-
gon, Secretary of War and Marine, represent-
ing Mexico, met, at Ciudad Juarez and El
Paso, where they held a series of conferences
within an open spirit of cordiality. During
these conferences full explanations and data

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

619

were exchanged concerning the military sit-
uation on the frontier.

As a result of these conferences a draft of a
memorandum was submitted to the approval
of the Washington and Mexican Governments
in accordance with which General Scott de-
clared that the destruction and dispersion of
the Villa band had been completed, and,
therefore, the American Government was de-
cided to begin the withdrawal of its troops
under the promise that the Mexican Govern-
ment would endeavor to maintain efficacious
guard on the frontier against new incursions
similar to that at Columbus.

CONDITION WAS REJECTED

8. The Mexican Government refused to ap-
prove that sort of agreement, because it was
stated in it, besides, that the American Gov-
ernment could suspend the withdrawal of its
troops if any other incident should occur
which would serve to change the belief of the
Washington Government in the ability of the
Mexican Government to protect the frontier.

The Mexican Government could not accept
this condition to suspend the withdrawal, be-
cause the evacuation of its territory is a mat-
ter entirely affecting the sovereignty of the
country, which should at no time be subjected
to the discretion of the American Govern-
ment, it being possible on the other hand that
another incident might occur which would
give the indefinite stay of the American
troops in Mexican territory a certain color of
legality.

9. General Scott, General Funston, and Gen-
eral Obregon were discussing this point, when
on the 5th of the present month of May a
band of outlaws assaulted an American garri-
son at Glenn Springs, on the American side,
crossing the Rio Grande immediately after to
enter into Mexican territory via Eoquillas.

10. On tnis account, and fearing that the
American Goverment would hasten the cross-
ing of new troops into Mexican territory in
pursuit of the outlaws, the Mexican Govern-
ment instructed General Obregon to notify the
United States that the crossing of American
soldiers on this new account would not be
permitted to enter into Mexico, and that or-
ders had already been given to all military
commanders on the frontier to prevent it.

11. When the attitude of the Mexican Gov-
ernment became known Generals Scott and
Funston assured General Obregon that no
movement of American troops had been or-
dered to cross the frontier on account of the
Boquillas incident, and that no more Amer-
ican soldiers would enter into our territory.

This assurance, which was personally made
by Generals Scott and Funston to General
Obregon when the conferences were about to
be adjourned, was reiterated by General Scott
himself in a later private conversation he had
with Licenciado Juan Neftali Amador, Sub-
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who had had
the opportunity to take part in the confer-
ences between the American and the Mexi-
can military commanders.

FEAR OF NEW INCURSION
12. On account of the same incident of Glenn
Springs, or Boquillas, fearing that the various
bands of outlaws which are organized or
armed near the frontier might repeat their in-
cursions, and with a view to procuring an ef-
fective military co-operation between Amer-
ican and Mexican forces, this Government
suggested through its representative, General
Obregon, to Generals Scott and Funston, rep-
resenting the United States, the convenience
of reaching an understanding on a military
plan of distribution of troops along the fron-
tier in order that an effective. watch could be
kept over the whole region, and avoiding in
this way, so far as possible, the recurrence of
similar assaults. The Mexican Government
showed by this action not only its good faith
and good wishes, but also its frank willing-
ness to arrive at an effective co-operation
with the Government of the United States to
avoid all further sense of friction between the
two countries.

This plan for the distribution of American
and Mexican forces in their respective terri-
tories along the frontier was proposed as a
means to prevent immediately any new diffi-
culty, and always with the idea of arriving
later at the celebration of an agreement for
the reciprocal crossing of troops, as long as
the abnormal conditions exist in our territory.

13. The conferences between Generals Scott,
Funston, and Obregon adjourned on May 11
without reaching any agreement concerning
the unconditional withdrawal of the American
troops. General Scott insisted in the form of
the memorandum concerning the conditonal
withdrawal of the American forces, but did
not take into consideration the plan proposed
by the Mexican Government for the protec-
tion of the frontier by means of detachments
along the same.

LEFT TO THE CAPITALS
Under these conditions it was left for the
Governments of Washington and Mexico to
conclude the arrangements initiated during
the conferences of Ciudad Juarez and El
Paso. Up to that time no complication had
occurred on account of the new Boquillas in-
cident, and all the assurances given by Gen-
erals Scott and Funston led us to suppose
that the above incident would not bring about
new difficulties.

14. The Mexican Government, however, has
just been informed that 400 men of the Eighth
Regiment of the American Army are in Mexi-
can territory, having crossed the line in the
direction of Boquillas approximately between
the 10th and llth of May, and are at present
near a place called El Pino, about sixty
miles south of the frontier. This fact was
brought to the attention of the Mexican au-
thorities by the commander himself of the
American troops which crossed the frontier,
who gave advice to the Mexican military
commander at Esmeraldo, Sierra Mojada, by
a communication in which he informed him
that he crossed the frontier in pursuit of the

620 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

band of outlaws which had assaulted Glenn
Springs, and in accordance with an agree-
ment existing between the American and the
Mexican Governments regarding the crossing
of troops, and with the consent of a Mexican
Consular official in Del Rio, Texas, to whom
the commander alleged to have informed of
the entry of his expedition.

15. The Mexican Government cannot as-
sume that an error has been committed a
second time by the American Government
ordering the crossing of its troops without
the consent of the Government of Mexico.
It fails to understand also that a command-
er of troops of the United States Army would
enter into Mexican territory without the due
authority from his superiors, and believing
that he could secure permission for the
crossing of his troops from a Consular agent.

The explanation given by the American
Government in regard to the crossing of
troops at Columbus has never been satisfac-
tory to the Mexican Government ; but the
new invasion of our territory is no longer an
isolated fact and tends to convince the Mex-
ican Government that something more than a
mere error is involved.

10. This latter act of the American forces
causes new complications for the Mexican
Government in the possibility of a satisfac-
tory solution and increases the tenseness of
the international situation between both
countries.

CHARGES AN INVASION

The Mexican Government cannot consider
this last incident except as an invasion of
our territory, made by American forces
against the expressed will of the Mexican
Government, and it is its duty to request,
as it does, the American Government to oicler
the immediate withdrawal of these new
forces and to abstain completely from send-
ing- any other expedition of a similar char-
acter.

17. The Mexican Government understands
its obligation to protect the frontier ; but this
obligation is not exclusively its own, and it
expects that the American Government,
which is subject to an equal obligation, will
appreciate the material difficulties with
which this task is met, inasmuch as the
American troops themselves, notwithstanding
their number and in spite of the fact that
their attention is not shared by other mili-
tary operations, are physically unable to ef-
fectively protect the frontier on the Amer-
ican side.

The Mexican Government has made every
effort on its part to protect the frontier
without disregarding, on the other hand, the
considerable task of pacification which is
being performed in the rest of the country,
and the American Goverment should under-
stand that if now and then any lamentable
incursions into American territory committed
by irresponsible bands of outlaws might oc-
cur, this should be a case of pecuniary rep-
aration and a reason to adopt a combined

defense, but never a cause for the American
authorities to invade our national territory.

The incursion of bands of outlaws into
American territory is a deplorable incident,
to say the least, but in no way can the Mex-
ican Government be made responsible for
them, inasmuch as it is doing everything pos-
sible to prevent them. The crossing of regu-
lar American troops into Mexican territory,
against the express will of the Mexican Gov-
ernment, does constitute an act of which the
American Government is- responsible.

18. The Mexican Government, therefore, be-
lieves that the time has come for it to insist
with the American Government that in with-
drawing at once the new Boquillas expedition
it should abstain in the future from sending
new troops. In any case, the Mexican Gov-
ernment after having made clear its unwill-
ingness to permit the crossing of new Amer-
ican troops into Mexican territory, will have
to consider the latter as an act of invasion of
its territory, and therefore it will be forced
to defend itself against any group of Amer-
ican troops which may be found within it.

19. With reference to the troops which are
now interned in the State of Chihuahua on
account of the Columbus incident, the Mexi-
can Government is compelled to insist on
their withdrawal.

The Mexican Government understands that,
in the face of the unwillingness of the Amer-
ican Government to withdraw the above
forces, it would be left no other recourse
than to procure the defense of its territory
by means of arms, but it understands at the
same time its duty to avoid as far as possible
an armed conflict between both countries ;
and, acting in accordance with Article 21 of
the treaty of Feb. 2, 1848, it considers it its
duty to resort to all means of a peaceful
character to find a solution of the interna-
tional conflict in which both countries are
involved.

20. The Mexican Government considers it
necessary to avail itself of this opportunity
to request the American Government to give
a more categorical explanation of its real in-
tentions toward Mexico. To this end it hopes
that in speaking with entire frankness its
words may not be interpreted as tending to
wound the sensibility of the American Gov-
ernment; but that it finds itself in the con-
dition to set aside all diplomatic euphemism,
in order to express its ideas with entire
frankness. If in the expression of the griev-
ances hereinafter mentioned the Mexican
Government makes use of the most perfect
frankness, it is because it considers its duty
to convey the most perfect clearness to the
mind of the Government and the people of
the United States concerning the Mexican
point of view.

PROTESTS OF FRIENDSHIP

21. The American Government has for some
time been making protests of friendship to
Latin-American countries, and it has availed
itself of all possible efforts to convince the

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

621

same that it is its desire to respect their
sovereignty absolutely.

With respect to Mexico especially, the Amer-
ican Government has stated on various occa-
sions that it has no intention to intervene in
any way in its internal affairs and that it
wishes to leave our country to decide by
itself its difficult problems of political and
social transformation. It is still reasoned
when, on account of the Columbus expedition,
the American Government, through the voice
of its President, has made the declaration
that it does not intend to interfere in the af-
fairs of Mexico nor to invade it, that it does
not desire to acquire a single inch of its ter-
ritory, and that it will in no way impair its
sovereignty.

The Washington Government and its repre-
sentatives on the frontier have also expressly
declared that it is not the will of the Amer-
ican people to go into war or have an armed
conflict with Mexico.

Summing up all of the above, and judging
from the official declarations which have
been made for some time past by the Wash-
ington Goverment, there should appear to be
an honest purpose on the part of the Govern-
ment and people of the United States not to
launch into a conflict with Mexico.

22. The Mexican Government, however, re-
grets to remark that the acts of the Amer-
ican military authorities are in absolute con-
flict with the above statements, and there-
fore finds itself costrained to appeal to the
President, the Department of State, the Sen-
ate, the American people to the end that
once and for all time the true political tend-
ency of the United States toward Mexico be
defined.

23. It is equally necessary that on this ac-
count the Government of the United States
should define in a precise manner its pur-
poses toward Mexico, in order that the other
Latin-American nations may be able to judge
the sincerity of such purposes and be able to
appreciate the proper value of the protests
of amity and fraternity which have been
made to them during many years.

24. The American Government, through the
voice of its own President, stated that the
punitive expedition from Columbus would
withdraw from Mexican territory as soon as
the bands of the Villa outlaws could have
been destroyed or dispersed. More than two
months have elapsed since this expedition
entered into Mexican territory; Generals
Scott and Funston declared in Ciudad Juarez
that the Villa band has been entirely dis-
persed, and, knowing this, the American
troops are not withdrawn from the territory
of Mexico.

The American Governments convinced and
has accepted the fact that no military task is
now left for the Columbus expedition, and
nevertheless the promise made by President
Wilson that the forces would withdraw as
soon as the purpose which caused them to go
in would have been reached has not been
complied with.

The causes of any internal political order
which may exist not to withdraw the Amer-
ican troops from Mexican territory, however
justified they may appear, cannot justify the
above attitude, but on the contrary they ac-
centuate the discrepancy between the pro-
tests of respect to the sovereignty of Mexico
and the actual fact that on account of rea-
sons of internal policy of the United States
a status should be maintained which is ut-
terly unjust with regard to the Mexican Re-
public.

25. The American Government stated that
its purpose in causing the American troops
to enter Mexico was only to defend the fron-
tier against probable incursions. This state-
ment, however, is in conflict with the attitude
assumed by the same American Government
in discussing the agreement concerning the
reciprocal crossing of the frontier, because
while the Mexican Government maintained
that said agreement should limit the zone of
operations of the troops of one and the other
country, as well as the time which the expe-
ditions should last, the number of soldiers
and the arm to which they should belong, the
American Government constantly eluded these
limitations. This attitude of the American
Government, which is the one expecting to
have frequent occasion to cross the frontier
on account of incursions~"of outlaws, is clearly
indicating the purpose of having power to
enter Mexican territory beyond the limit
which the necessities of defense could re-
quire.

20. The Columbus punitive expedition, as it
has been called, had not, according to the
statements of President Wilson, any other
purpose than to reach and punish the band of
outlaws which had committed the outrage,
and it was organized under the supposition
that the Mexican Government had given its
consent to it. Such expedition, however, has
had a character of such clear distrust toward
Mexico and of such absolute independence,
that it cannot justly be considered as any-
thing but an invasion made without the con-
sent, without the knowledge, and without the
co-operation of the Mexican authorities.

It was a known fact that the Columbus ex-
pedition crossed the frontier without the con-
sent of the Mexican Government. The Amer-
ican military authorities have carried this ex-
pedition into effect without awaiting for the
consent of the Government of Mexico, and
even after they were officially informed that
this Government had not given its consent
for it, they nevertheless continued it, causing
more troops to cross the line without inform-
ing the Mexican authorities of this fact.

The expedition has entered and operated
within Mexican territory without procuring
the co-operation of the Mexican authorities.
The American military authorities have al-
ways maintained complete secrecy regarding-
their movements without informing the Mex-
ican Government about them, such as they
would have done if they really had tried to
obtain co-operation. This lack of advice and

622 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

agreement was the cause of the clash which
occurred in Parral between American forces
and Mexican citizens.

In conclusion, the Columbus expedition has
been carried into effect without any spirit of
harmony, but, on the contrary, under a spirit
of distrust with* respect to our authorities, as
our co-operation was not only unsought, nor
were we informed with regard to military
operations affected, besides the expedition
was organized, carrying artillery and infantry
forces.

Now, then, the protests of friendly co-op-
eration made by the American authorities are
not in keeping with the use of infantry and
artillery exclusively destined to be employed
against the regular Mexican forces.

If the Columbus expedition had taken place
with the consent of the Mexican Government
and its co-operation had been sought, the use
of artillery and infantry would nave been
considered an insult to the Mexican authori-
ties because of the supposition that they
might feloniously assault the American forces
which would have entered Mexico in pursuit
of a common enemy confiding in the friend-
ship of the former. Nevertheless, it is pref-
erable to interpret this act as a proof that
the American forces entered into Mexican
territory without the consent of the Mex-
ican Government, and, therefore, ready to re-
pel any aggression on the part of regular
Mexican forces who were ignorant of their
presence.

" A HOSTILE EXPEDITION "

All of the above facts demonstrate that
there has been a great discrepancy between
the protests of sincere friendly co-operation
on the part of the American authorities and
the actual attitude of the expedition, which,
on account of its distrust, its secrecy regard-
ing its movements and the arms at its dis-
posal, clearly indicated that it was a hostile
expedition and a real invasion of our terri-
tory.

27. The American Government has stated
on different occasions that the Columbus ex-
pedition had no other object than to pursue
and destroy the Villa bandits, and that as
soon as this would be accomplished the ex-
pedition would be withdrawn. The facts, how-
ever, have shown that the intention of the
American Government was not the same dur-
ing the conference at Ciudad Juarez and El
Taso. It cannot be explained otherwise that
General Scott should have insisted so em-
phatically on the signing of a memorandum
stating that the American forces would not
finish their withdrawal, if any other inci-
dent occurred which would mortify the belief
of the American Government in the ability of
the Mexican Government to protect the fron-
tier.

The conclusion to be drawn from this in-
sistency of General Scott regarding the sign-
ing of this memorandum is that the Columbus
expedition entered into Mexico promising to
withdraw as soon as it should have destroyed

the Villa band, but that it is the purpose to
make use of it afterward as an instrument to
guarantee the protection of the 'frontier.
' 28. The American Government justly desires
that the frontier should be protected. If the
frontier should be properly protected against
incursions from Mexico there would be no
reason then for the existing1 difficulty. The
American Government knows of the difficul-
ties obtaining in the protection of a frontier
line in which there are no natural facilities to
aid in its defense, and, notwithstanding its
immense resources, the American Govern-
ment itself has not been able to render an
effective protection along a line of more than
2,000 kilometers to be guarded.

The Mexican Government proposed that the
military chiefs in charge of the troops in one
and the other country should discuss a plan
of cantonments along the boundary line, and,
notwithstanding the protestations of the
American Government of its desire to solve
its difficulties with Mexico, General Scott did
not approve the above plan of cantonments,
which is the only thing rational and the only
plan that could be carried into effect without
involving the sovereignty or territory of one
or the other country. The American Govern-
ment prefers to keep its troops inactive and
idle within the territory of Mexico, instead of
withdrawing them to post them along the
frontier in accord with Mexican authorities
who would do likewise on their side. By this
action the American Government gives room
for the supposition that its true intention is
to keep the troops it already has interned in
Mexico anticipating that it may make use of
them later for future operations.

CHARGES BAD FAITH

29. The American Government has on all
occasions declared its desire to help the Con-
stitutionalist Government to complete the
work of pacification and its desire that this
task should be carried into effect within the
least time possible. The true attitude of the
American Government in relation with these
desires appears to be entirely incongruous,
inasmuch as for some time back it has been
doing things indicating that it does not only
render any assistance to the work of pacifi-
cation of Mexico, but that, on the contrary,
it appears to place all possible obstacles to
the execution of this task. As a matter of
fact, without considering the great number
of diplomatic* representations made under the
pretext of protection to American interests
in Mexico, which are constantly embarrassing?
the task of the new Government, whose in-
tention it is to reorganize the political,
economic, and social conditions of the coun-
try on a new basis, there is a great number
of facts which cause the influence of the
American Government to be felt against the
consolidation of the present Government of
Mexico.

The decided support given at one time to
Villa by General Scott and the Department
of State itself was the principal cause for

GENERAL ALEXEI A. BRUSILOFF

Commander of Russian Armies on Southwest Front, Who Has Broken
Through the Austrian Lines and Invaded Galicia

ARMORED AUTOMOBILES

A British Armored "Scout" Near the French Front
(Photo by Underwood d Underwood.)

A Group of Italian Armored Cars of a New Type, With Two Gur

Turrets
(From on Official Photograph.)

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

623

the prolongation of civil war in Mexico for
many months. Later on the continuous aid
vhich the American Catholic clergy has ren-
dered to the Mexican Catholic clergy, which
is incessantly working against the Constitu-
tionalist Government, and the constant ac-
tivities of the American interventionist press
and business men of that country, are, to
say the least, an indication that the present
American Government does not wish or is
unable to prevent all the works of con-
spiracy against the Constitutionalist Gov-
ernment carried into effect in the United
States.

30. The American Government claims con-
stantly from the Mexican Government an
effective protection of the frontiers, and,
nevertheless, the greater number of the
bands which take the name of rebels against
this Government is provided and armed,
and perhaps also organized, on the American
side under the tolerance of the authorities
of the State of Texas, and, it may be said,
even of the Federal authorities of the United
States. The leniency of the American au-
thorities toward such bands is such that in
the majority of cases the conspirators, who
are well known, and wherever they have
been discovered and imprisoned, are released
under insignificant bonds, permitting them
to continue in their efforts.

Mexican emigrants, who Are plotting and
organizing incursions on the American side,
have now more facilities to cause injury
than before, because knowing that any new
difficulty between Mexico and the United
States will prolong the stay of American
troops, they endeavor to increase the oc-
casions for a conflict and friction.

31. The American Government claims to
help the Constitutionalist Government in its
task of pacification and urges that such a
work be done within the least time possible,
and that the protection of the frontiers be
effected in the most efficacious way. And
nevertheless, on various occasions, the Amer-
ican Government has detained shipments of ~
arms and ammunition purchased by the
Mexican Government in the United States,
which should be employed to hasten the
task of pacification and to more efficaciously
protect the frontier. The pretexts given to
detain the shipment of munitions consigned to
this Government have always been futile and
never have we been given a frank reason ;
it has been said, for example, that the muni-
tions were embargoed because it was not
known who the owner might be, or because
of the fear that they might fall into the
hands of Villista bands.

The embargo of war material consigned to
the Mexican Government can have no other
interpretation than that the Government of
the United States wishes to protect itself
against the emergency of a future con-
flict, and therefore it is endeavoring to
prevent arms and ammunition which might
be used against American troops from reach-

ing the hands of the Mexican Government.
The American Government would have the
right to take this precaution against such
emergency, but in that case it ought not to
say that it is endeavoring to co-operate with
the Mexican Government, and it would be
preferable to give out a more frank state-
ment concerning its procedure.

The American Government either desires
to decidedly and frankly help the Mexican
Government to re-establish peace, and in this
case it ought not to prevent the exportation
of arms, or the true purposes of the Amer-
ican Government are to get ready so that
in the case of future war with Mexico the
latter'may find itself less provided with arms
and ammunition. If this is the case, it would
be preferable to say so.

In any case, the embargo on arms and am-
munition consigned to the Mexican authori-
ties, under the frivolous pretext of prevent-
ing these arms and ammunition from falling
into the hands of Villista bands, is an indi-
cation that the actual acts of the American
military authorities are entirely in conflict
with the purposes of peace of the American
Government.

The Mexican Government cannot wish war
with the United States, and if this should
occur it would undoubtedly be as a conse-
quence of a deliberate purpose of the United
States. For the time being the above pre-
cautionary acts of the American Government
indicate that there is a purpose of prepared-
ness for such emergency, or that, which is
the same, the beginning of hostility on the
part of the United States toward Mexico.

32. In conclusion, the New York American
authorities, alleging that they act at thei
suggestion of a neutral peaceful society, have
ordered the detention of several parts of ma-
chinery which the Mexican Government was
forwarding to Mexico for its ammunition
factory. It could not be conceived that this
machinery could be used before several
months after it had reached its destination.
This action of the American Government,
tending to prevent the manufacturing of
munitions in a remote future, is another clear
indication that its true purposes toward
Mexico are not peaceful, because while mill-
ions and millions of dollars' worth of arms
and ammunition are being daily exported for
the European war without peace societies
becoming impressed by the spectacle of that
war, the New York authorities are showing
exceedingly marked interest in seconding the
purposes of the above-mentioned humanita-
rian societies whenever it is a matter of
exporting to Mexico any machinery for the
manufacture of arms and ammunition.

Mexico has the indisputable right just like
the United States and all other nations in the
•world to provide for its military necessities,
especially so when it is confronting so vast a
task as that of insuring the pacification of
the interior of this country; and the action
of the Government of the United States in de-
taining machinery destined for the manufact-

624 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ure of ammunitions is indicative either that
the United States wishes to place obstacles to
its complete pacification, or that this action
is one of the series carried into effect by the
American authorities as a matter of precau-
tion in case of a projected war with Mexico.

33. All of the above-mentioned circum-
stances indicate that the true purpose of the
military authorities of the United States are
in absolute contradiction with the continuous
protestations of amity of the American Gov-
ernment toward Mexico.

34. The Mexican people and Government
are absolutely sure that the American people
do not wish war with Mexico. There are,
nevertheless, strong American interests and
strong Mexican interests laboring to secure
a conflict between the two countries. The
Mexican Government firmly desires to pre-
serve peace with the American Government,
but to that effect it is indispensable that the
American Government should frankly explain
its true purposes toward Mexico.

It is indispensable that the above contra-
diction between the protests of amity on the
part of Washington and the acts of distrust
and aggression on the part of American mili-
tary authorities should be brought to an end.

The Mexican Government and people, there-

fore, are anxious to know what they should
expect, and they want to be sure that the
expressions so many times made by the Gov-
ernment of the United States should be really
in keeping with the sincere desires for peace
between the two countries, a friendship which
should exist not only in declarations, but
crystallize in deeds.

The Mexican Government, therefore, for-
mally invites the Government of the United
States to cause the situation of uncertainty
between the two countries to cease and to
support its declarations and protests of
amity with real and effective action which
will convince the Mexican people of the sin-
cerity of its purposes. This action, in the
present situation, cannot be other than the
immediate withdrawal of the American
troops which are now in Mexican territory.

In complying with the instructions of the
First Chief, I avail myself of this occasion
to offer your Excellency the assurance of
my highest consideration.

(Signed) C. AGUILAR,

Secretary.
His Excellency Robert Lansing,

Secretary of State of the United States of
America, Washington, D. C.

Text of the American Government's Answer

to Carranza

mHE United States Government,
J_ through Secretary Lansing, sent a
firm reply on June 20 to General
Carranza's note of May 22, flatly reject-
ing his demands. It stated plainly that
the de facto Government had not done its
part in preventing the depredations upon
our border, and that American troops
would not be withdrawn until it showed
its willingness and power to stop the out-
rages. The discourteous tone of Car-
ranza's note was rebuked, and the de-
termination of the United States, as well
as our essential good-will, were made
clear. The document left the responsibil-
ity for the next step with the Carranza
Government.

The full text of the American note is
as follows:

The Secretary of State to the Secretary of
Foreign Relations of the de facto Govern-
ment of Mexico.

Department of State,

Washington, June 20, 1916.
SIR: I have read your communication,
which was delivered to me on May 22, 1916,

under instructions of the Chief Executive of
the de facto Government of Mexico, on the
subject of the presence of American troops
in Mexican territory, and I would be want-
ing- in candor if I did not, before making
answer to the allegations of fact and the.
conclusions reached by your Government, ex-
press the surprise and regret which have
been caused this Government by the discour-
teous tone and temper of this last communi-
cation of the de facto Government of Mexico.
The Government of the United States has
viewed with deep concern and increasing dis-
appointment the progress of the revolution
in Mexico. Continuous bloodshed and disor-
ders have marked its progress. For three
years the Mexican Republic has been torn
with civil strife ; the lives of Americans and
other aliens have been sacrificed ; vast prop-
erties developed by American capital and en-
terprise have been destroyed or rendered non-
productive ; bandits have been permitted to
roam at will through the territory contiguous*
to the United States and to seize, without
punishment or without effective attempt at
punishment, the property of Americans,
while the lives of citizens of the United
States, who ventured to remain in Mexican
territory or to return there to protect their
interests, have been taken, in some cases bar-
barously taken, and the murderers have
neither been apprehended nor brought to jus-

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

625

tice. It would be difficult to find in the an-
nals of the history of Mexico conditions more
deplorable than those which have existed
there during1 these recent years of civil war.
It would be tedious to recount instance
after instance, outrage after outrage, atro-
city after atrocity, to illustrate the true
nature and extent of the widespread con-
ditions of lawlessness and violence which
have prevailed. During the past nine months
in particular, the frontier of the United
States along the lower Rio Grande has been
thrown into a state of constant apprehen-
sion and turmoil because of frequent and
sudden incursions into American territory
and depredations and murders on American
soil by Mexican bandits, who have taken
the lives and destroyed the property of Am-
erican citizens, sometimes carrying American
citizens across the international boundary
with the booty seized.

STATEMENT OF OUTRAGES
American garrisons have been attacked at
night, American soldiers killed, and their
equipment and horses stolen. American
ranches have been raided, property stolen
and destroyed, and American trains wrecked
and plundered. The attacks on Brownsville,
Red House Ferry, Progreso Post Office, and
Las Peladas, all occurring during September
last, are typical. In these attacks on Ameri-
can territory. Carranzista adherents and
even Carranzista soldiers took part in the
looting, burning, and killing. Not only were
these murders characterized by ruthless bru-
tality, but uncivilized acts of mutilation were
perpetrated. Representations were made to
General Carranza, and he was emphatically
requested to stop these reprehensible acts in
a section which he has long claimed to be .
under the complete domination of his au-
thority.

Notwithstanding these representations and
the promise of General Nafarrete to prevent
attacks along the international boundary, in
the following month of October a passenger
train was wrecked by bandits and several
persons killed seven miles north of Browns-
ville, and an attack was made upon United
States troops at the same place several days
later. Since these attacks, leaders of the
bandits well known both to Mexican civil
and military authorities, as well as to Amer-
ican officers, have been enjoying with im-
punity the liberty of the towns of Northern
Mexico. So far has the indifference of the
de facto Government to these atrocities gone
that some of these leaders, as I am advised,
have received not only the protection of that
Government, but encouragement and aid as
well. _

Depredations upon American persons and
property within Mexican jurisdiction have
been still more numerous. This Government
has repeatedly requested in the strongest
terms that the de facto Government safe-
guard the lives and homes of American citi-
zens and furnish the protection which inter-

national obligation imposes, to American in-
terests in the northern States of Tamaulipas,
Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and So-
nora, and also in the States to the south.

For example, on Jan. 3, troops were
requested to punish the bands of outlaws
which looted the Cusi mining property, eighty
miles west of Chihuahua, but no effective
results came from this request. During the
following week the bandit, Villa, with his
band of about 200 men, was operating without
opposition between Rubio and Santa Ysabel,
a fact well known to Carranzista authorities.
Meanwhile a party of unfortunate Americans
started by train from Chihuahua to visit the
Cusi mines, after having received assurances
from the Carranzista authorities in the State
of Chihuahua that the country was safe and
that a guard on the train was not necessary.
The Americans held passports or safe con-
ducts issued by authorities of the de facto
Government. On Jan. 10 the train was
stopped by Villa bandits, and eighteen of the
American party were stripped of their cloth-
ing and shot in cold blood, in what is now
known as the " Santa Ysabel massacre."
General Carranza stated to the agent of the
Department of State that he had issued
orders for the immediate pursuit, capture,
and punishment of those responsible for this
atrocious crime, and appealed to this Govern-
ment and to the American people to consider
the difficulties of according protection along
the railroad where the massacre occurred.
Assurances were also given by Mr. Arredondo,
presumably under instructions from the de
facto Government, that the murderers would
be brought to justice, and that steps would
also be taken to remedy the lawless condi-
tions existing in the State of Durango.
MASSACRE UNPUNISHED

It is true that Villa, Castro, and Lopez
were publicly declared to be outlaws and
subject to apprehension and execution, but
so far as known only a single man personally
connected with this massacre has been
brought to justice by Mexican authorities.
Within a month after this barbarous slaugh-
ter of inoffensive Americans, it was notorious
that Villa was operating within twenty miles
of Cusihuiriachic and publicly stated that his
purpose was to destroy American lives and
property. Despite repeated and insistent de-
mands that military protection should be
furnished to Americans, Villa openly carried
on his operations, constantly approaching
closer and closer to the border. He was not
intercepted nor were his movements impeded
by troops of the de facto Government and no
effectual attempt was made to frustrate his
hostile designs against Americans. In fact,
as I am informed, while Villa and his band
were slowly moving toward the American
frontier in the neighborhood of Columbus,
N. M., not a single Mexican soldier was seen
in this vicinity. Yet the Mexican authorities
were fully cognizant of his movements, for on
March 6, as General Gavira publicly an-

626

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

nounced, he advised the American military
authorities of the outlaw's approach to the
border, so that they might be prepared to pre-
vent him from crossing the boundary.

THE COLUMBUS RAID
Villa's unhindered activities culminated in
the unprovoked and cold-blooded attack upon
American soldiers and citizens in the town
of Columbus on the night of March 9, the de-
tails of which do not need repetition here in
order to refresh your memory with the
heinousness of the crime. After murdering,
burning, and plundering, Villa and his ban-
dits, fleeing south, passed within sight of the
Carranzista military post at Casas Grandes,
and no effort was made to stop him by the
officers and garrison of the de facto Govern-
ment stationed there.

In the face of these depredations, not only
on American lives and property on Mexican
soil, but on American soldiers, citizens, and
homes on American territory, the perpetrators
of which General Carranza was unable or
possibly considered it inadvisable to appre-
hend and punish, the United States had no
recourse other than to employ force to dis-
perse the bands of Mexican outlaws who were
with increasing boldness systematically raid-
ing across the international boundary.

The marauders engaged in the attack on
Columbus were driven back across the border
by American cavalry, and subsequently, as
soon as a sufficient force to cope with the
band could be collected, were pursued into
Mexico in an effort to capture or destroy
them. Without co-operation or assistance in
the field on the part of the de facto Govern-
ment, despite repeated requests by the
United States, and without apparent recog-
nition on its part of the desirability of put-
ting an end to these systematic raids, or of
punishing the chief perpetrators of the crimes
committed, because they menaced the good
relations of the two countries, American
forces pursued the lawless bands as far as
Parral, where the pursuit was halted by the
hostility of Mexicans, presumed to be loyal
to the de facto Government, who arrayed
themselves on the side of outlawry and be-
came in effect the protectors of Villa and
his band.

JUSTIFIED IN OUR ACTION
In this manner and for these reasons have
the American forces entered Mexican terri-
tory. Knowing fully the circumstances set
forth, the de facto Government cannot be
blind to the necessity which compelled this
Government to act, and yet it has seen fit
to recite groundless sentiments of hostility
toward the expedition and to impute to this
Government ulterior motives for the con-
tinued presence of American troops on Mex-
ican soil. It is charged that these troops
crossed the frontier without first obtaining
the consent or permission of the de facto
Government. Obviously, as immediate ac-
tion alone could avail, there was no oppor-
tunity to reach an agreement (other than

that of March 10-13, now repudiated by Gen-
eral Carranza) prior to the entrance of such
an expedition into Mexico if the expedition
-was to be effective. Subsequent events and
correspondence have demonstrated to the
satisfaction of this Government that General
Carranza would not have entered into any
agreement providing for an effective plan for
the capture and destruction of the Villa
bands.

While the American troops were moving
rapidly southward in pursuit of the raiders,
it was the form and nature of the agreement
that occupied the attention of General Car-
ranza, rather than the practical object which
it was to obtain— the number of limitations
that could be imposed upon the American
forces to impede their progress, rather than
the obstacles that could be raised to prevent
the escape of the outlaws. It was General
Carranza who suspended through your note
of April 12 all discussions and negotations
for an agreement along the lines of the
protocols between the United States and
Mexico concluded during the period 1882-1896,
under which the two countries had so suc-
cessfully restored peaceful conditions on
their common boundary.

It may be mentioned here that, notwith-
standing the statement in your note that
" the American Government gave no answer
to the note of April 12," this note was re-
plied to on April 14, when the department
instructed Mr. Rodgers by telegraph to de-
liver this Government's answer to General
Carranza.

Shortly after this reply the conferences be-
tween Generals Scott, Funston, and Obre-
gon began at El Paso, during which they
signed on May 2 a project of a memorandum,
ad referendum, regarding the withdrawal of
American troops. As an indication of the
alJeged bad faith of the American Govern-
ment, you state that though General Scott
declared in this memorandum that the de-
struction and dispersion of the Villa band
" had been accomplished," yet American
forces are not withdrawn from Mexico. It
is only necessary to read the memorandum,
which is in the English language, to ascer-
tain that this is clearly a misstatement, for
the memorandum states that " the American
punitive expeditionary forces have destroyed
or dispersed many of the lawless elements
and bandits * * * or have driven them far
into the interior of the Republic of Mexico,"
and, further, that the United States forces
were then " carrying on a vigorous pursuit
of such small numbers of bandits or lawless
elements as may have escaped."

The context of your note gives the impres-
sion that the object of the expedition being
admittedly accomplished, the United States
had agreed in the memorandum to begin the
withdrawal of its troops. The memorandum
shows, however, that it was not alone on ac-
count of partial dispersion of the bandits that
it was decided to begin the withdrawal of
American forces, tout equally on account of

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

627

the assurances of the Mexican Government
that their forces were " at the present time
being augmented- and strengthened to such
an extent that they will be able to prevent
any disorders occurring in Mexico that would
in any way endanger American territory,"
and that they would " continue to diligently
pursue, capture, or destroy any lawless bands
of bandits that may still exist or hereafter
exist in the northern part of Mexico," and
that it would " make a proper distribution of
such of its forces as may be necessary to pre-
vent the possibility of invasion of American
territory from Mexico." It was because of
these assurances and because of General
Seott's confidence that they would be carried
out that he stated in the memorandum that
the American forces would be " gradually
withdrawn."

It is to be noted that, while the American
Government was willing to ratify this agree-
ment, General Carranza refused to do so,
as General Obregon stated, because, among
other things, it imposed improper conditions
upon the Mexican Government.

CARRANZA'S WORD NOT KEPT
Notwithstanding the assurances in the
memorandum, it is well known that the forces
of the de facto Government have not carried
on a vigorous pursuit of the remaining ban-
dits, and that no proper distribution of forces
to prevent the invasion of American territory
has been made, as will be shown by the fur-
ther facts hereinafter set forth. I am re-
luctant to be forced to the conclusion which
might be drawn from these circumstances
that the de facto Government, in spite of the
crimes committed and the sinister designs of
Villa and his followers, did not and does not
now intend or desire that these outlaws
should be captured, destroyed, or dispersed
by American troops or, at the request of
this Government, by Mexican troops.

While the conferences at El Paso were in
progress, and after the American conferees
had been assured on May 2 that the Mexican
forces in the northern part of the republic
were then being augmented so as to be able
to prevent any disorders that would endanger
American territory, a band of Mexicans, on
the night of May 5, made an attack at Glenn
Springs, Texas, about twenty miles north of
the border, killing American soldiers and civ-
ilians, burning and sacking property, and
carrying off two Americans as prisoners.
Subsequent to this event, the Mexican Gov-
ernment, as you state, " gave instructions to
General Obregon to notify that of the United
States that it would not permit the further
passage of American troops into Mexico on
this account, and that orders had been given
to all military commanders along the frontier
not to consent to same."

This Government is of course not in a posi-
tion to dispute the statement that these in-
structions had been given to General Obregon,
but it can decisively assert that General Ob-
regon never gave any such notification to

General Scott or General Funston, or, so far
as known, to any other American official.
General Obregon did, however, inquire as to
whether American troops had entered Mexico
in pursuit of the Glenn Springs raiders, and
General Funston stated that no orders had
been issued to American troops to cross the
frontier on account of the raid, but this
statement was made before any such orders
had been issued and not afterward, as the
erroneous account of the interview given in
your note would appear to indicate.

Moreover, no statement was made by the
American Generals that " no more American
troops would cross into our territory." On
the contrary, it was pointed out to General
Obregon and to Mr. Juan Amador, who was
present at the conference, and pointed out
with emphasis, that the bandits de la Rosa
and Pedro Vino, who had been instrumental
in causing the invasion of Texas above
Brownsville, were even then reported to be
arranging in the neighborhood of Victoria for
another raid across the border, and it was
made clear to General Obregon that if the
Mexican Government did not take immediate
steps to prevent another invasion of the
United States by these marauders, who were
frequently seen in the company of General
Nafarrete, the Constitutionalist commander,
Mexico would find in Tamaulipas another
punitive expedition similar to that then in
Chihuahua.

OUR TROOPS AUTHORIZED
American troops crossed into Mexico on
May 10, upon notification to the local military
authorities, under the repudiated agreement
of March 10-13, or in any event in accordance
with the practice adopted over forty years
ago, when there was no agreement regarding
pursuit of marauders across the international
boundary. These troops penetrated 108 miles
into Mexican territory in pursuit of the Glenn
Springs marauders, without encountering a
detachment of Mexican troops or a single
Mexican soldier.

Further discussion of this raid, however,
is not necessary, because the American forces
sent in pursuit of the bandits recrossed into
Texas on the morning of May 22, the date of
your note under consideration — a further
proof of the singleness of purpose of this
Government in endeavoring to quell disorder
and stamp out lawlessness along the border.

EL PASO CONFERENCES'
During the continuance of the El Paso con-
ferences, General Scott, you assert, did not
take into consideration the plan proposed by
the Mexican Government for the protection
of the frontier by the reciprocal distribution
of troops along the boundary. This proposi-
tion was made by General Obregon a number
of times, but each time conditioned upon the
immediate withdrawal of American troops,
and the Mexican conferrees were invariably
informed that immediate withdrawal could
not take place, and that, therefore, it was

628 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

impossible to discuss the project on that
basis.

I have noted the fact that your communica-
tion is not limited to a discussion of the de-
plorable conditions existing along the border
and their important bearing on the peaceful
relations of our Governments, but that an
effort is made to connect it with other, cir-
cumstances in order to support, if possible,
a mistaken interpretation of the attitude of
the Government of the United States toward
Mexico. You state in effect that the Amer-
ican Government has placed every obstacle
in the way of attaining the pacification of
Mexico, and that this is shown by the volume
of diplomatic representations in behalf of
American interests which constantly impede
efforts to reorganize the political, economical,
and social conditions of the country; by the
decided aid lent at one time to Villa by Amer-
ican officers and by the Department of State ;
by the aid extended by the American Cath-
olic clergy to that of Mexico ; by the constant
activity of the American press in favor of
intervention and the interests of American
business men; by the shelter and supply of
rebels and conspirators on American terri-
tory ; by the detention of shipments of arms
and munitions purchased by the Mexican
Government, and by the detention of ma-
chinery intended for their manufacture.

ANSWER TO CHARGES
In reply to this sweeping charge, I can
truthfully affirm that the American Gov-
ernment has given every possible encourage-
ment to the de facto Government in the
pacification and rehabilitation of Mexico.
From the moment of its recognition it has
had the undivided support of this Govern-
ment. An embargo was placed upon arms
and ammunition going into Chihuahua, So-
nora, and Lower California, in order to pre-
vent their falling into the hands of the armed
opponents of the de facto Government. Per-
mission has been granted from time to time,
as requested, for Mexican troops and equip-
ment to traverse American territory from
one point to another in Mexico in order that
the operations of Mexicans troops against
Villa and his forces might be facilitated.

In view of these friendly acts, I am sur-
prised that the de facto Government has
construed diplomatic representations in re-
gard to the unjust treatment accorded Amer-
ican interests, private assistance to opponents
to the de facto Government by sympathizers
in a foreign country and the activity of a
foreign press as interference by the United
States Government in the domestic politics
of Mexico. If a denial is needed that this
Government has had ulterior and improper
motives in its diplomatic representations, or
has countenanced the activities of American
sympathizers and the American press op-
posed to the de facto Government, I am
giad most emphatically to deny it.

It is, however, a matter of common knowl-
edge that the Mexican press has been more

active than the press in the United States in
endeavoring to inflame the two peoples
against each other, and to force the two
countries into hostilities. With the power of
censorship of the Mexican press, so rigor-
ously exercised by the de facto Government,
the responsibility for this activity cannot, it
would seem, be avoided by that Government,
and the issue of the appeal of General Car-
ranza himself, in the press of March 12, call-
ing upon the Mexican people to be prepared
for any emergency which might arise, and
intimating that war with the United States
was imminent, evidences the attitude of the
de facto Government toward the publications.
REASON FOR STOPPING MUNITIONS
It should not be a matter of surprise that,
after such manifestations of hostile feeling,
the United States was doubtful of the pur-
pose for which the large amount of ammuni-
tion was to be used which the de facto Gov-
ernment appeared eager to import from this
country. Moreover, the policy of this de facto
Government in refusing to co-operate, and in
failing to act independently in destroying the
Villa bandits, and in otherwise suppressing
outlawry in the vicinity of the border, so as
to remove the danger of war materials, while
passing southward through this zone, falling
into the hands of enemies of law and order, is,
in the opinion of this Government, a sufficient
ground, even if there were no other, for the
refusal to allow such materials to cross the
boundary into the bandit-infested region. To
have permitted these shipments without care-
ful scrutiny would, in the circumstances,
have been to manifest a sense of security
which would have been unjustified.

HOSTILITY OF COMMANDERS
Candor compels me to add that the uncon-
cealed hostility of the subordinate military
commanders of the de facto Government to-
ward the American troops engaged in pur-
suing the Villa bands and the efforts of the
de facto Government to compel their with-
drawal from Mexican territory by threats
and show of military force instead of by aid-
ing in the capture of the outlaws, constitute
a menace to the safety of the American
troops and to the peace of the border. As
long as this menace continues and there is
any evidence of an intention on the part of
the de facto Government or its military com-
manders to use force against the American
troops instead of co-operating with them, the
Government of the United States will not per-
mit munitions of war or machinery for their
manufacture to be exported from this country
to Mexico.

As to the shelter and supply of rebels and
conspirators on American territory, I can
state that vigorous, efforts have been and are
being made by the agents of the United States
to apprehend and bring to justice all persons
found to be conspiring to violate the laws of
the United States by organizing to oppose
with arms the de facto Government of Mexi-
co. Political refugees have undoubtedly

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

629

sought asylum in the United States, but this
Government has vigilantly kept them under
surveillance, and has not hesitated to ap-
prehend them upon proof of their criminal
intentions, as the arrest of General Huerta
and others fully attests.

THE REAL SITUATION

Having corrected the erroneous statements
of fact to which I have adverted, the real
situation stands forth in its true light, it
is admitted that American troops have
crossed the international boundary in hot
pursuit of the Columbus raiders, and with-
out notice to or the consent of your Govern-
ment, but the several protestations on the
part of this Government by the President,
by this department, and by other American
authorities, that the object of the expedition
was to capture, destroy, or completely dis-
perse the Villa bands of outlaws or to turn
this duty over to the Mexican authorities
when assured that it would be effectively
fulfilled, have been carried out in perfect
good faith by the United States. Its efforts,
however, have been obstructed at every point :
First, by insistence on a palpably useless
agreement, which you admit was either not
to apply to the present expedition or was to
contain impracticable restrictions on its or-
ganization and operation ; then by actual op-
position, encouraged and fostered by the de
facto Government, to the further advance of
the expedition into Villa territory, which was
followed by the sudden suspension of all
negotiations for an arrangement for the pur-
suit of Villa and his followers and the pro-
tection of the frontier; and, finally, by a de-
mand for the immediate withdrawal of the
American troops. Meantime, conditions of
anarchy in the border States of Mexico were
continually growing worse. Incursions into
American territory were plotted and per-
petrated. The Glenn Springs raid was suc-
cessfully executed, while no effective efforts
were being made by General Carranza to im-
prove the conditions and to protect American
territory from constant threat of invasion.
UNREASONABLE DEMANDS

In view of this increasing menace, of the
inactivity of the Carranza forces, of the lack
of co-operation in 'the apprehension of the
Villa bands, and of the known encouragment
and aid given to bandit leaders, it is un-
reasonable to expect the United States to
withdraw its forces from Mexican territory,
or to prevent their entry again when their
presence is the only check upon further
bandit outrages and the only efficient means
of protecting American lives and homes —
safeguards which General Carranza, though
internationally obligated to supply, is mani-
festly unable or unwilling to give.

In view of the actual state of affairs as I
have outlined it above, I am now in a posi-
tion to consider the conclusions which you
have drawn in your note under acknowledg-
ment from the erroneous statements of fact
which you have set forth.

Your Government intimates, if it does not
openly charge, that the attitude of the United
States is one of insincerity, distrust, and sus-
picion toward the de facto Government of
Mexico, and that the intention of the United
States in sending its troops into Mexico is
to extend its sovereignty over Mexican ter-
ritory, and not merely for the purpose of
pursuing marauders and preventing future
raids across the border. The de facto Gov-
ernment _charges by implication which ad-
mits of but one interpretation, that this
Government has as its object territorial
aggrandizement even at the expense of a war
of aggression against a neighbor weakened
by years of civil strife. The Government
of the United States, if it had had designs
upon the territory of Mexico, would have had
no difficulty in finding during this period of
revolution and disorder many plausible argu-
ments for intervention in Mexican affairs.

Hoping, however, that the people of Mex-
ico would through their own efforts restore
peace and establish an orderly Government,
the United States has awaited with patience
the consummation of the revolution.

RECOGNITION OF CARRANZA

When the superiority of the revolutionary
faction led by General Carranza became un-
doubted, the United States, after conferring
with six others of the American republics,
recognized unconditionally the present de
facto Government. It hoped and expected
that that Government would speedily restore
order and provide the Mexican people and
others, who had given their energy and sub-
stance to the development of the great re-
sources of the republic, opportunity to re-
build in peace and security their shattered
fortunes.

This Government has waited month after
month for the consummation of its hope of
expectation. In spite of increasing discour-
agements, in spite of repeated provocations to
exercise force in the restoration of order in
the northern regions of Mexico, where Amer-
ican interests have suffered most seriously
from lawlessness, the Government of the
United States has refrained from aggressive
action and sought by appeals and moderate
though explicit demands to impress upon the
de facto Government the seriousness of the
situation and to arouse it to its duty to per-
form its international obligations toward cit-
izens of the United States who had entered
the territory of Mexico or had vested inter-
ests within its boundaries.

In the face of constantly renewed evidence
of the patience and restraint of this Govern-
ment in circumstances which only a Govern-
ment imbued with unselfishness and a sincere
desire to respect to the full the sovereign
rights and national dignity of the Mexican
people would have endured, doubts and sus- <
picions as to the motives of the Government
of the United States are expressed in your
communication of May 22, for which I can
imagine no purpose but to impugn the good
faith of this Government, for I find it hard

630

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

to believe that such imputations are not uni-
versally known to be without the least shadow
of justification in fact.

PROOFS OF GOOD FAITH
Can the de facto Government doubt that,
if the United States had turned covetous eyes
on Mexican territory, it could have found
many pretexts in the past for the gratifica-
tion of its desire? Can that Government
doubt that months ago, when the war between
the revolutionary factions was in progress, a
much better opportunity than the present was
afforded for American intervention, if such
had been the purpose of the United States
as the de facto Government now insinuates?
What motive could this Government have had
in refraining- from taking- advantage of such
opportunities other than unselfish friendship
for the Mexican Republic?

I have, of course, given consideration to
your argument that the responsibility for the
present situation rests largely upon this Gov-
ernment.

In the first place, you state that even the
American forces along the border whose
attention is undivided by other military
operations " find themselves physically una-
ble to protect effectively the frontier on the
American side." Obviously, if there is no
means of reaching bands roving on Mexican
territory and making sudden dashes at night
into American territory it is impossible to
prevent such invasions unless the frontier is
protected by a cordon of troops. No Govern-
ment could be expected to maintain a force of
this strength along the boundary of a nation
with which it is at peace for the purpose of
resisting the onslaughts of a few bands
of lawless men, especially when the neigh-
boring State makes no effort to prevent these
attacks. The most effective method of pre-
venting raids of this nature, as past ex-
perience has fully demonstrated, is to visit
punishment or destruction on the raiders. It
is precisely this plan which the United States
desires to follow along the boundary without
any intention of infringing upon the sovereign
rights of her neighbor, but which, although
obviously advantageous to the de facto Gov-
ernment, it refuses to allow or even counte-
nance.

LIVES MUST BE PROTECTED
It is, in fact, protection to American lives
and property about which the United States is
solicitous, and not the methods or ways in
which that protection shall be accomplished.
If the Mexican Government is unwilling or
unable to give this protection by preventing
its territory from being the rendezvous and
refuge of murderers and plunderers, that
does not relieve this Government from its
duty to take all the steps necessary to safe-
guard American citizens on American soil.
The United States Government can not and
will not allow bands of lawless men to es-
tablish themselves upon its borders with lib-
erty to invade and plunder American territory
with impunity, and, when pursued, to seek

safety across the Rio Grande, relying upon
the plea of their Government that the integ-
rity of the soil of the Mexican Republic must
not be violated.

The Mexican Government further protests
that it has " made every effort on its part
to protect the frontier," and that it is doing
" all possible to avoid a recurrence of such
acts." Attention is again invited to the /well-
known and unrestricted activity of De la
Rosa, Ancieto Piscano, Pedro Vino, and
others in connection with border raids, and
to the fact that, as I am advised, up to
June 4, De la Rosa was still collecting troops
at Monterey for the openly avowed purpose
of making attacks on Texan border towns,
and that Pedro Vino was recruiting at other
places for the same avowed purpose. I have al-
ready pointed out the uninterrupted progress
of Villa to and from Columbus, and the fact
that the American forces in pursuit of the
Glenn Springs maurauders penetrated 168
miles into Mexican territory without encoun-
tering a single Carranzista soldier. This does
not indicate that the Mexican Government is
doing " all possible " to avoid further raids;
and if it is doing " all possible," this is hot
sufficient to prevent border raids, and there
is every reason, therefore, why this Govern-
ment must take such preventive measures as
it deems sufficient.

It is suggested that injuries suffered on
account of the bandit raids are a matter
of " pecuniary reparation," but " never the
cause for American forces to invade Mexican
soil." The precedents which have been estab-
lished and maintained by the Government of
the Mexican Republic for the last half cent-
ury do not bear out this statement. It has
grown to be almost a custom not to settle
depredations of bandits by payments of
money alone, but to quell such disorders and
to prevent such crimes by swift and sure
punishment.

A PARAMOUNT OBLIGATION
The de facto Government finally argues
that " if the frontier were duly protected
from incursions from Mexico, there would
be no reason for the existing difficulty."
Thus the de facto Government attempts to
absolve itself from the .first duty of any
Government, namely, the protection of life
and property. This is the paramount obliga-
tion for which Governments are instituted,
and Governments neglecting or failing to
perform it are not worthy of the name.
This is the duty for which General Car-
ranza, it must be assumed, initiated his
revolution in Mexico, and organized the pres-
ent Government, and for which the United
States Government recognized his Govern-
ment as the de facto Government of Mexico.
Protection of American lives and property,
then, in the United States is first the obli-
gation of this Government, and in Mexico, is,
first, the obligation of Mexico, and, second,
the obligation of the United States.

In securing this protection along the com-
mon boundary, the United States has a right

MEXICO'S THREAT OF WAR

631

to expect the co-operation of its neighboring
republic; and, yet, instead of taking- steps
to check or punish the raiders, the do facto
Government demurs and objects to measures
taken by the United States. The Govern-
ment of the United States does not wish to
believe that the de facto Government ap-
proves these marauding attacks, yet, as they
continue to be made, they show that the
Mexican Government is unable to repress
them. This inability, as this Government
has had occasion in the past to say, may ex-
cuse the failure to check the outrages com-
plained of, but it only makes stronger the
duty of the United States to prevent them,
for if the Government of Mexico cannot pro-
tect the lives and property of Americans, ex-
posed to attack from Mexicans, the Govern-
ment of the United States is in duty bound,
so far as it can, to do so.

REFUSAL TO. WITHDRAW

In conclusion, the Mexican Government in-
vites the United States to support its "as-
surances of friendship with real and effective
acts," which " can be no other than the im-
mediate withdrawal of the American troops."
For the reasons I have herein fully set forth,
this request of the de facto Government can-
not now be entertained. The United States

lias not sought the duty which has been
forced upon it of pursuing bandits who, un-
der fundamental principles of municipal and
international law, ought to be pursued and
arrested and punished by Mexican authorities.
Whenever Mexico will assume and effectively
exercise that responsibility, the United States,
as it has many times before publicly declared,
will be glad to have this obligation fulfilled
by the de facto Government of Mexico. If,
on the contrary, the de facto Government is
pleased to ignore this obligation and to be-
lieve that " in case of a refusal to retire
these troops there is no further recourse than
to defend its territory by an appeal to arms,"
the Government of the United States would
surely be lacking in sincerity and friendship
if it did not frankly impress upon the de facto
Government that the execution of this threat
will lead to the gravest consequences. While
this Government would deeply regret such a
result, yet it cannot recede from its settled
determination to maintain its national rights
and . to perform its full duty in preventing
further invasions of the territory of the
United States and in removing the peril which
Americans along the international boundary
have borne so long with patience and for-
bearance. Accept, &c.

ROBERT LANSING.

The Man and the Machine

By Gilbert K. Chesterton

The Famous English Essayist

AtONG the fairy tales in which we
formerly indulged is one which we
are luckily losing in the deadly
disillusionment of war. It may
be called the legend of the Teutonic Race ;
or, the fairy tale of the two-golden-haired
brothers. These two blonde and beautiful
persons, the Englishman and the German,
were twins in some prehistoric perambu-
lator and were destined to embrace again
at some far-off family party, having only
been separated in the interval by the one
being occupied in annexing the whole of
the earth and the other the whole of the
sea. Other groups and institutions, such
trifles as the Roman Empire, the French
Revolution, the melting pot of America,
and what can only be called the continent
of Russia — these things did not exist at
all, except as things to be annexed. It is
legitimate, I think, to be proud of having
really artistic dreams ; and it has no dis-

advantages, except that in order to dream
we must sleep. And we awoke when the
knife was at our throat. When we
sought for our brother we saw the face
of a stranger, and looked into the eyes
of a savage.

The truth is that no two men, neither
of them literally black nor literally naked,
could well be more different than the two
types which have come to stand for Eng-
land and for Germany. It is the islander
against the inlander, the amateur against
the specialist, the eulogist of a liberty
falling into laxity against the eulogist of
a discipline driven to terrorism, the heir
of a ruined Roman province against the
chief of a half-baked and hardly bap-
tized tribe, the wanderer whose winnings
have all been at the ends of the earth
against the plodder who has laid field to
field, and taken his provinces from his
nearest neighbors. The perception of

632 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

this contrast is no mere recoil due to the
war; it has long been apparent to those
who preferred European history to Teu-
ton mythology. Its solidity can be proved
by the fact that the contrast holds in
the weaknesses as in the merits of
England.

That Prussianized Germany is su-
premely efficient is indeed widely assert-
ed and often taken for granted. When I
remarked elsewhere on the spiritual in-
sanity of modern Germany, a critic rue-
fully expressed the wish that the Ger-
man rulers would bite some of our own.
I am far from saying that the German
rulers may not bite somebody; one never
can tell where true scientific progress
may lead. But I am prepared to main-
tain that in the plain test of positive bat-
tle, their biting has been much less ef-
fective than General Joffre's nibbling.

German discipline seems to be the
science of repeating a mistake. It would
really seem as if the concentration of the
mind on mechanical triumphs made the
mind itself mechanical. The essence of
all machinery is recurrence. But though
the engine must repeat itself to be a suc-
cess, if the engineer always repeats him-
self he will be a bore. The wheel is al-
ways returning and beginning again; but
we do not want the coach to be always
going back and starting again. Nowa-
days it does not seem so much to be the
North Germans who make a machine that
repeats itself; it is rather the machine
that makes them repeat themselves. The
fanciful might think they had really
found perpetual motion, the impossibil-
ity— which has passed into a proverb;
and that they had found it, like so many
things mysteriously forbidden, a disaster
for the sons of men.

Those who talk as if the English tra-
dition of liberty or looseness were an un-
mixed weakness are perpetually remind-
ing us of the fiasco of Gallipoli. The
English abandoned the effort against
Gallipoli. The Germans have not aban-
doned the effort against Verdun. To
them it will probably appear a paradox,
but it is a very solid truism, that the
Germans have therefore suffered a

much more crushing defeat than the
English.

But there is a much wider area in
which the truth is supremely true and
supremely important. I mean, of course,
the English tradition of a liberal adapt-
ability in the problems of colonies and
dependencies. Here again a mere jingo
optimism merely swamps the honest ob-
jectivity of the claim we can really make.
England has done many things which I,
as an Englishman, deplore or detest; she
has done some things which all English-
men deplore or detest. But what is
strictly and scientifically true about Eng-
land is this, that wherever the English
influence is present, men feel that it has
something which I can only call the flex-
ibility of a living thing. The vital point
is not that these things were done; it is
that they were done and undone; that the
men who made the mistake were alive
enough to see the mistake. The strength
of the Prussian, not by our account, but
by his own account, lies in his inflexibil-
ity; and there are not wanting at this
moment advocates of panic and persecu-
tion to urge this foreign fad upon the
Government of England.

The truth is that amnesty and compro-
mise have been for England a strength
in the very strongest sense — that most
athletic type of strength that goes with
activity. A wooden leg is not stronger
than a living leg, because it does not
flinch and draw back when it steps on a
thorn. The strength of the English in-
fluence has been that at the extremest
limits of its sprawling limbs it has been
at least alive, and knew the nature of
what it touched. People complained of
it, but they also complained to it; for
they knew it had strength enough to
move and mend. But the wooden leg is
planted firmly in Belgium today; and we
shall not waste our time in complaining
to a wooden leg. We shall do so the less
because the wooden leg is in truth
adorned and completed by a wooden
head; and the whole is one huge wooden
idol carved like Hindenburg, which the
limbs of living men shall lift and cast
into the fire.

War Events From Two Viewpoints

In order that no phase of the truth may be overlooked CURRENT HISTORY offers two expert
interpretations of the military events of the month, one written from the German, the other
from the American point of view.

[AMERICAN VIEW]

The Month's Military Developments

From May 15 to June 15, 1916

By J. B. W. Gardiner

Formerly Lieutenant Eleventh United States Cavalry
[See map of Italy on Page 643]

THE month ended June 15 has pro-
duced some of the most surpris-
ing incidents of the great war.
These are the naval battle in
the North Sea, the Austrian attack
against the Italian positions in Tren-
tino, and the Russian offensive against
the Austrian positions from the Pripet
Marshes to Bukowina.

As to the naval battle, its facts and
figures are set forth fully elsewhere.
There now seems to have been very little
difference between the respective cas-
ualties. The great difference in the
naval resources of the Allies and the
Central Powers, however, makes such
conditions a German defeat. If it were
a German victory, Germany needs but
few more such to be eliminated from
consideration as a naval power.

It is clear that the battle of Verdun is
not going in a way that tends to instill
confidence in the German mind, either
at home or on the firing line. Possibly,
also, the Balkan nations are commencing
to wonder whether the world's verdict on
the German possibilities is not, after all,
a mistaken one. There have been rum-
blings from the Reichstag for some time
over the progress, or rather the lack of
progress, of events. The German people
were led to believe great things of the
Verdun attack. The failure of these
things to materialize has caused, first,
surprise, and now apparently some little
resentment. It was necessary that some-
thing be done to draw public attention
from Verdun and focus the public gaze

on some more spectacular happening.
The sudden naval engagement in the
North §ea supplied that need.

An intelligent reference to the situa-
tion created in Italy's fortunes by the
attack of Austria in Trentino requires
a brief preface of the general Italian
plan. The original plan was for an of-
fensive on only one front, that of the
Isonzo. The entire western and north-
ern Austro-Italian border is heavily but-
tressed with almost impassable mount-
ains, the Isonzo front alone being open
and offering the necessary elemental
prospects of success. In Trentino, how-
ever, these mountains are penetrated by
several valleys, which, if left open, would
have nullified any attempt to operate
against the Isonzo line, by providing a
very ready passage for Austrian troops,
who would then take the Isonzo line in
the rear. The Italians, therefore, at the
very beginning, attempted to close these
gaps as a measure of defense on the
Isonzo line. In this defensive operation
in Trentino they advanced some distance
up the principal valleys, until they were
at the gates of Rovereto and Riva and
were seriously threatening both cities.
At this point, however, they were con-
tent to rest and spend all their energies
on the eastern front. For some months
there had been almost absolute quiet in
this field, which was the situation when
the Austrian offensive started.

The Austrian move was dictated by a
very ambitious plan to invade Northern
Italy, penetrate beyond the mountain

634 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

barrier into the plains, seize the railroad
lines crossing these plains and running to
Venice, take this latter city itself, and
paralyze the. entire Isonzo operation. As
an incident to this success, the entire
Italian line in the north of Italy would
be taken in the rear and would either
have to retire south of the railroad or
be captured through being cut off. The
area embraced by the Austrian attack
can best be roughly described as a right-
angle triangle, the base of which is a
line forty miles due east of Borghetto and
whose altitude is thirty miles due north
along a line drawn from the point thus
reached. The hypotenuse of this tri-
angle will thus approximate the boundary
between Austria and Italy. The object
of the attack was, as noted, the control
of the railroads crossing the northern
Italian plain. There are two such roads
serving the Isonzo front, one passing
through Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, and
Treviso, and the other through Mantua
and Padua. The latter is the more im-
portant, as it reaches the more impor-
tant industrial centres and depots of
Lombardy and Piedmont. It is apparent
that if the Austrians could take the more
northern of these lines the Isonzo front
would be imperiled, and if they took both
it would be completely cut off.

The two principal exits from the Alps
to the northern Italian plain are the Val
Lagarina, which is the valley of the
Adige, and the Val Sugana, which is the
valley of the Brenta. These carry the
two main roads and the only railroads of
this part of the Trentino country. One,
if not both, must be in Austrian hands
before it can be said that they have done
anything seriously to hamper the Italian
operations. The critical points in the
two valleys are Valstagna, in the Val
Sugana, and Borghetto, in the Val Laga-
rina, as from these points south the
character of the country begins to change
from the altitudinous Alps to the plains
below. The Austrians drove the Italians
back on an average of about ten miles
over the entire front, taking position
after position in the most difficult coun-
try imaginable, and captured a great
number of men and quantities of ma-
terial. They advanced with the towns

of Arsiero and Asiago as their imme-
diate objectives to within about five
miles of either place. The importance
of these places, particularly Asiago, re-
lates only to the Val Sugana. From
Asiago to Valstagna is but seven miles.
A successful fight for the latter town
would give the Austrians complete con-
trol of the Val Sugana and turn the en-
tire Italian position in this valley.

It is to be noted that the Austrian suc-
cess was made possible by a very heavy
and entirely unexpected concentration of
men and heavy guns, utilized to their
utmost ability by an attack in which
surprise was the dominating character-
istic. To this feature of surprise and to
their heavy artillery the Austrians owe
the measure of success they have so far
attained. As they advance, however,
owing to the extremely difficult nature
of the terrain, the transportation of guns
and munitions becomes an operation in-
creasingly difficult. This shows itself
in the fact that for several weeks now
the Austrians have been halted almost
in place.

The indications are that the Austrian
blow has spent its force and that the
Italians are taking the offensive. If this
is so the Austrians have but little to
show for their effort. They have recon-
quered a small amount of territory and
have, indeed, carried the war to Italian
soil. They have also captured a large
number of prisoners and a number of
guns. The only loss that the Italians
will feel, however, is the loss in artillery,
which may well prove serious. Judging
from present indications, the Austrian
effort is a plan that died a-borning, and
that as an offensive movement it is pure-
ly local in character and effect.

The feature of the month has been
the inauguration of a great Russian of-
fensive, which has taken in the entire
front from the Gulf of Riga to Czerno-
witz, on the Pruth. This movement has
created great surprise in the minds of
all followers of the war. In the first
place, the Russian march through the
Caucasus and along the Black Sea seemed
so pregnant of important possibilities
that Russia was expected to devote most
of her energies to that campaign. In the

WAR EVENTS FROM TWO VIEWPOINTS

635

BATTLE LINE OF GREAT RUSSIAN DRIVE IN VOLHYNIA AND GALICIA,
STAGE OF PROGRESS ON JUNE 15, 191G.

SHOWING

second place, it has only been a few
weeks since an offensive on the southern
part of the western front was begun and
crushed. Finally, it was not considered
that Russia had had sufficient time to
recoup her losses in men and material
incident to the terrific drubbing she re-
ceived from Germany last Summer.

The time for such a movement was, it
is true, propitious. Austria is known
not to have any too many men. She has
called to the colors her 1918 class and
has already warned the 1919 class. The
Russians hold almost as many Austrian
prisoners as the Germans do Russian
prisoners. Owing to the calamities that
overtook her in the early days of the
war, her losses have been out of all
proportion to Germany's, or even to Rus-
sia's. When the offensive against the
Italian Trentino was started it was but
natural, therefore, to wonder where Aus-
tria obtained the men. Her reserves were
certainly not ample for the purpose, and

even if they were it would not seem a
very wise policy to use them in such an
enterprise. They could not have been taken
from the Isonzo front, as the Austrian
forces there were under constant pressure
from the Italians and the front could
not be weakened without giving the Ital-
ians free passage of the river at the
Gorizia bridgehead. The only other place
the men could have come from was that
section of the Russian line between the
Pripet Marshes and the Bessarabian
frontier. And as the Russian offonsive
progresses it is becoming evident that
this is where they did come from.

Apparently the Austrians, having beat-
en Russia back, felt that the enemy
would not strike there soon again. But
Russia did strike, and struck with tre-
mendous impact, which broke the Aus-
trian lines as they had not been broken
since the first months of the war, when
Russia conquered all of Galicia. In vain
did Austria call for German assistance.

636 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

The Germans were firmly hooked at Ver-
dun. They had been pouring troops into
the Verdun area since February, and
France would not let her go. Moreover,
Russia was active also in the Dvinsk
sector, and Germany did not dare weaken
this front for fear that the Russians
would break through here. Consequent-
ly Austria has had to fight the fight
alone, with such meagre help as the
Germans in the Poliesse region could
give.

Conjecture as to the Russian object is
unnecessary. The direct object of the
attack is certain — the railroad centres,
first of Kovel and then of Lem-
berg. The Russian movement was ad-
mirably planned, the time selected with,
unerring reasoning, the strategy perfect
in conception. In the first days of the
attack Kovel was apparently deemed the
all-important point. Accordingly, the full
force of the Russian blow struck first at
Volhynia. The Volhynian triangle is the
crux of the entire situation in this sec-
tion. Lutsk and Dubno fell into Aus-
trian hands early last Fall. With them
went most of the area included in the
triangle. Along the Ikwa and the Styr
ran the Austrian lines in heavily in-
trenched positions. But in one June week
both of the western fortresses fell, and
the Russians were overrunning the entire
triangle, capturing prisoners by the
thousands. In the south, on the west
bank of the Sereth River, the Russians
also drove forward, but it seemed that
their object was merely to prevent any
transfer of troops to the threatened sec-
tion. As matters have developed, how-
ever, the Austrian lines here also were
weak, and have been driven back in some
places to the Stripa, and in some places
across it and almost to Zlota Lipa. Czer-
nowitz, the capital of the Austrian crown
land of Bukowina, is almost completely
surrounded and cut off, the bridgeheads
of the Dniester to the north are all
forced and in Russian hands. At this
writing the Russians are fighting with-
in three miles of the city. Unless the
force of the Russian attack is suddenly
spent, it seems that nothing can prevent
the fall of the city.

In the north, west of Volhynia, the

Russians have advanced to within less
than twenty miles of Kovel and are still
pushing rapidly forward. As they move
west their progress will be seriously re-
tarded by the fact that the lines of com-
munication of the Austrians become
shorter, and their troops, because of Aus-
tro-German control of the railroads, can
be shifted much more quickly. But the
speed of the Russian attack has carried
them far beyond the last line of Aus-
trian intrenchments, and the Austrians
are not being given the opportunity to
prepare new ones. They are being rap-
idly pursued by the Cossacks, who have
taken great masses of war material of all
kinds.

Because of the rapidity of their ad-
vance, however, the Russian lines are
becoming very irregular and somewhat
broken. Their consolidation will take
some little time. At the same time, the
Austrian position is very precarious.
Deep salients are being created in their
lines about Kovel, so that the flank of
their line further north is being vitally
affected. If Kovel falls the entire line,
at least as far north as Pripet, will have
to fall back, as it is dependent on the
railroad running through Kovel for sup-
plies.

The extent of the Russian success can-
not yet be determined. They have capt-
ured so far about 150,000 prisoners and
have completely disrupted the entire sys-
tem of Austrian defense. At least one-
third of the entire Austrian force in this
section has been put out of action, and
each day Russia reports thousands of
additional prisoners. The Germans have
attempted to relieve the situation by an
attack along the Dwina, but the Rus-
sians, without diminishing the force of
their blow against Austria, have an-
swered with a heavy attack in the Lake
Narosc region to the south. In ten days
the Russians have retaken many more
times the area that Germany has taken
about Verdun since February, have taken
five times the number of prisoners,
though operating in a much more diffi-
cult territory and on a much more ex-
tended front.

In other theatres but little has hap-
pened of interest. The Germans are

WAR EVENTS FROM TWO VIEWPOINTS

637

still keeping up their attacks at Verdun,
but their progress is to them painfully
slow. The only change in the situation
worthy of note is the fall of Fort Vaux.
This may prove to be the turning point
in the Verdun fighting, as it may en-
able the Germans little by little to out-
flank the entire French main position on
the ridge of Louvemont. What the Ger-
man object is in persisting in these at-
tacks for a small fortified area is still a
mystery. No military conception is yet
apparent that offers a reasonable ex-

planation. The/ Russian endeavor in the
Near East is apparently at a standstill,
only local engagements of minor impor-
tance having taken place during 'the
month. This, however, is not unnatural,
in view of the Russian operations far-
ther west. In summarizing the month's
operations it may be said that at no
time since the Marne have the prospects
of the Allies been so bright. Russ'a's
rejuvenation, as thorough as it has been
unlocked for, has changed the whole face
of things.

[GERMAN VIEW]

Progress at All the Battle Fronts

Written for CURRENT HISTORY

By H. H. von Mellenthin

Foreign Editor New York Staats-Zeitung

[See war maps on Pages 635 and 643] '

/OVERSHADOWING ail the month's

\J military developments stands the
great naval battle off the coast
of Denmark, which history will re-
gard as a crucial test of strength.
It is one of the most significant
events of this war, the greatest in
the history o£ modern naval warfare,
the clash of a centuries-old claim, based
upon many successes, with a " Future
Upon the Water." And herein lies the
world-historic importance of the sea fight
of May 31 — that it signified the dusk —
the Gotterdammerung — of an antiquated
claim and the dawn of a new future.

The battle at the Skagerrak did not
succeed in hauling from the topmast of
Britain's naval power the glory-crowned
colors that have through centuries flut-
tered above all seas; but it wound the
sprouting green of the German oak
around the iron cross on black-white-and-
red, the German navy's ensign. Claims
and counterclaims have been made as to
the losses, as determined by the figures
of tonnage. The losses, however, can only
determine the fighting strength that is
left on either side; they cannot nullify
the verdict of history.

The sea battle off the Skagerrak con-

stitutes one of the greatest events in the
history of modern naval warfare, because
the course, result, and effects of this bat-
tle put naval warfare under an entirely
new perspective, create new rules of
tactics, and lead to an evolutionary phase
of the whole naval situation.

PHASES OF THE BATTLE
The battle took the following course:

(a) The taking of positions by the op-
posing fleets.

(b) The battle in the afternoon of
May 31.

(d) The continuation of the battle
during the night from May 31 to June 1.

The British main fleet had been con-
centrated off the Orkney Isles for a pro-
posed raid on the German coast. This
home fleet consisted of units of the four
battleship squadrons, the three cruiser
squadrons, the light cruiser squadron, the
destroyer flotilla, and the submarine flo-
tilla. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was in
chief command; Vice Admiral Beatty
commanded the cruiser squadron. The
itinerary first led the British fleet in the
direction of the Skagerrak, the object

638 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

being later to take a southern course to-
ward the German coast, the main base of
the German fleet, and to attack Heligo-
land and Wilhelmshaven.

The excellent reconnoissance work of
the German Navy had reported both the
British naval concentration off the Ork-
ney Isles and the subsequent approach of
the hostile warships. The German High
Seas Fleet, Admiral Scheer in chief com-
mand and Rear Admiral Hipper in
charge of the cruiser squadron, left Wil-
helmshaven, gathered the mosquito flo-
tillas patrolling the waters around Heli-
goland, steamed out to meet the enemy,
met him in the afternoon of May 31 be-
tween Horn's Riff and the Skagerrak, and
opened battle at a distance of 11 kilo-
meters.

At this comparatively short distance
the battle was bound to dissolve soon into
separate running actions. Neither side
attempted to destroy the enemy at long
distance before the smaller cruisers and
torpedo craft could approach. All the
weapons of naval warfare took a hand
soon after the opening of the battle, and
its course and result were determined by
all weapons.

In the artillery engagement at short
distance the medium calibres and the
marksmanship as well as dexterity of
manoeuvring proved great assets upon
the German side. The comparatively
short distance at which this stage of the
battle was fought constituted a hindering
element for the participation of the
dreadnoughts and their big-calibre guns.

The first phase of the afternoon battle
had entered into the seventh hour when
Vice Admiral Beatty undertook to place
his cruiser squadron between the German
fleet, and its base. This was a tactical
mistake, for the extension of the battle
line — between points respectively 40 and
135 kilometers from the Jutland Coast —
should have been sufficient to prove to
him the futility of such an attempt.

The first official communications of
the British Admiralty denied that on the
English side any battleships participated
in the afternoon fighting. This version
was later corrected by London: Upon
the arrival of the battleships, it was then
stated, the Germans hastily took to re-

treat. With the settling of dusk the
fourth phase (d) of the battle began.
It lasted far into the night. This phase
was, from the military standpoint, the
most interesting and instructive. It
brought the almost exclusive action of
the torpedo craft.

It was, one English version puts it, as
if, after an effective artillery initiation
and preparation, infantry went forth to
attack. It was the liveliest running ac-
tion of the whole fight. In the first two
phases marksmanship and clever ma-
noeuvring were decisive; now personal
courage and integrity counted. It was as
in the open battlefield, where the man
proves his full worth and individual
qualities count.

LESSONS OF THE BATTLE

1. The legend of the British Navy's
immunity from attack, and of its inviola-
bility, has been shattered. The claim
that Britannia, unchallenged, rules the
waves has been rendered untenable.

2. With the Skagerrak battle was
brought into being a Verdun of the sea.
For, as at Verdun, so in the naval fight
off .Jutland's coast, the bearing-down
strategy, the strategy that aims at de-
feating the enemy in the open, has taken
the lead. What trench warfare is o'n land,
submarine warfare is on water, both in
purpose and tactics. As in the trenches,
the opponent is to be worn down and out,
so utter exhaustion is to be brought
about at sea by the submarines. But the
ultimate and final decision, attained only
by the destruction of the opponent's mil-
itary strength, falls, as on land, also on
the sea — in open battle.

3. The course and result of the Skag-
errak battle have given the lie to the
dreadnought school and the submarine
school. The former sees in the " one-cal-
ibre " ship and in the increase of calibre
the decisive weapon for the destruction
of the opponent. The latter would revo-
lutionize, through the medium of the sub-
marine, the whole scheme of tactics in
naval warfare, and would place the scene
of the decision under water.

Belying such claims and theories of
these two schools, the recent sea fight
demonstrates that the decision is not

GENERAL LUIGI CADORNA

Commander in Chief of the Italian Armies, Who Has Checked the Great

Austrian Offensive in the Alps
(Photo from Underwood 4 Underwood.)

BARON CONRAD VON HERTZENDORF

'hr Austrian Commander V* iru Directed the Powerful Offrnsive
Against the Italians in the Trentino

' I'hfttn .?> by r'nir-rrtal Pf#>s

PROGRESS ON THE BATTLE FRONTS

639

determined by any one particular
weapon, but that it is rather attained by
the employment of all offensive weapons.

The sea fight off Jutland did not ac-
cord the heaviest artillery, the 38-centi-
meter guns, the role of the decisive
factor. The " bigger- than- the-other "
tactics, which prompted the gigantic
construction program of the dreadnought
and superdreadnought battleships, did
not assert itself, inasmuch as the course
and the result of the battle were deter-
mined at, and by, shorter distances.

On the basis of the official accounts of
both sides, and with the aid of the sta-
tistical data given in the Taschenbuch
der Kriegsflotten by Captain Lieut. B.
Weyer, the losses of both sides are seen
to have been :

On the German side, 60,720 tons.

On the British side, 117,150 tons.

But these figures prove nothing. Suc-
cess in the Skagerrak battle depended
upon quite different factors. The means
of power by which England maintains her
world dominion are mostly unreal. The
prestige of the British name and the
myth of the inviolability and immunity
from attack of the English fleet form the
clasps that hold the world empire to-
gether. Whatever claims and counter-
claims may be cited to prove victory or
defeat for one or the other side, one re-
sult, that which is epoch-making, is irref-
utable— the mistaken theory about Eng-
land's world rule. . The myth is dis^
posed of.

THE RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Since the initiation of the Russian
offensive on June 3, the situation on the
southeastern front has again become the
centre of interest in the European war.
The offensive was launched along a line
beginning north of the Pripet and ex-
tending southward to the Bessarabian
frontier, a distance of 250 miles.

The immediate objectives are Lem-
berg, capital of Galicia, in the west, and
Kovel in a north-northwestward direc-
tion. The fighting is over the possession
of the following important railway lines:
The Lutsk-Kovel-Brest-Litovsk railway;
the Dubno-Brody-Lemberg railroad, and
the sector Tarnopol-Krasno, which there
meets the Brody-Lemberg line.

The distance from Dubno to Lemberg
is 140 kilometers; from Buczacz to Lem-
berg, 135 kilometers; from Tarnopol to
Lemberg, 120 kilometers; from Lutzk to
Kovel, 60, and thence to Brest-Litovsk,
120 kilometers.

At the time this review is concluded
the military situation on the southeastern
front has developed as follows:

1. Volhynian Front. — The Russians
have occupied the fortresses of Lutzk and
Dubno, and to the north and south have
crossed the River Styr. They have been
halted and even driven back, however, by
the Austro-Hungarians at Kolki, where
the crossing of the Styr, in the direction
of Kovel, had been forced.

2. Galician Front. — After crossing the
River Sereth the Russians occupied Buc-
zacz, and in dense masses pushed toward
Przevloka, but we're beaten back there
by the army of the Bavarian General,
Count von Bothmer.

3. Bukowina Front. — This has always
been the most vulnerable spot in the en-
tire southeastern battle line. Czernowitz,
which the Russians in the previous course
of the war captured several times, fell
with the occupation by the Russians of
Zaleszczyki, Horodenka, and Okna.

Simultaneously, a Russian forward
movement was launched against the po-
sitions to the north of Baronovitchi, a
sector of the front held by the Bavarian
Prince Leopold. Seven times the at-
tackers stormed against the German
" trench front," which begins in that
region and extends further northward
as far as the Dwina. Seven times the
Muscovite masses were thrown back.

It was scarcely necessary for the
Austro-Hungarian high command to
announce officially that the Russian of-
ficial reports concerning numbers of
prisoners taken are grossly exaggerated.
To believe those enormous Russian fig-
ures would be to assume that the Austro-
Hungarian troops stood in dense masses
on top of one another. The official.
Vienna statement says further that the
losses of the Russians are between two
and three times as large as the Aus-
trian. That is plausible when one con-
siders that the Russians are attacking
en masse on a very long front. .

640 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

The further development of this Rus-
sian offensive will depend upon the an-
swers to two questions: When will suf-
ficient reinforcements have arrived on
the Teutonic side, and how long can the
" forward " strategy of General Brusiloff ,
with its waste of human material and
ammunition, keep up ? Such waste has
spelled disaster to every previous Rus-
sian offensive.

The Austro-German lines southwest
of Kovel are holding; the Teuton resist-
ance here becomes more stubborn hourly.
Here it is, however, that General Brusi-
loff must pierce the Teuton lines and
drive them beyond Kovel, thus placing
himself in control of the entire railway
system serving the Teuton southern wing.
The further the Russians advance in the
south and the stronger the Austro-Ger-
man forces become in the north, the more
perilous becomes the position of the Rus-
sian left wing, for it exposes itself more
and more to the menace of a flanking at-
tack from the north which might accom-
plish what was tried in vain in the great
1915 drive — the complete envelopment
and capture of a whole Russian army.

ON THE ITALIAN FRONT

The happenings in the Italian theatre
of war do not at all indicate that the
" long-distance " effect of the Russian
offensive is making itself felt in the ne-
cessity to draw Austro-Hungarian forces
from the South Tyrolean frontier. The
principal fighting goes on at present in
the area between Arsiero and Asiago.
East of Asiago the attackers have ex-
tended their front beyond Ronci, have
stormed Monte Meletta, and have ad-
vanced as far as Stoccareddo. To the
southeast of Asiago they have taken pos-
session of the hostile positions on the
Monte Lemerle, south of Gesuna.

Monte Meletta dominates the Brenta
Valley, through which runs the Trent-
Venice railway. Ronci lies only a few
kilometers from the station of Vallzuga.
This advance in an eastward direction
from Asiago purposes cutting off the
Italians from the vital line of communi-
cation eastward. As soon as this purpose
is achieved the retirement of all the Ital-

ian forces further east in the Val Su-
gana will become imperative. Moreover,
the road leads through the Frenzela Val-
ley and the Brenta Valley to Bassano,
where the Venetian plain begins-, and
further to Citadella, on the great line
Vincenza - Citadella - Castellof ranco -Tre-
viso-Venice.

Not only the military but also the in-
tended political " long-distance " effect of
the Russian offensive upon the develop-
ments on the Italian front and the situ-
ation in Italy have failed. It did not even
save the Salandra Cabinet, despite the re-
tired Premier's explicit reference to this
Russian offensive.

PROGRESS AT VERDUN

The Verdun campaign is hastening
toward its conclusion. On the right bank
of the Meuse the inner enceinte of forts
already has been taken under German
fire. After the capture of Vaux Fort the
German lines to the west of the fort ex-
tend to Thiaumont farm, with Hill 321,
southward to the village of Fleury and
Fort Souville, and southeastward to Fort
Tavannes. The latter lies south of the
Metz-Verdun railway, and forms the
easternmost fortification of Verdun. Be-
tween this ring and the fortress proper
there are only Forts Belleville and St.
Michel and the detached works of Dou-
aumont, (not to be confused with the fort
of the same name long since in German
hands.)

At the same time the operations west
of the Meuse continue. Chattancourt,
the key to the line Esnes-Fort de Bois
Bourrus-Fort de Marre, is under the
Crown Prince's heavy artillery fire. The
Fort de Marre forms the fortification
nearest to Verdun proper from the north-
west. From the line Esnes-Hill 310-
Bourrus Wood the advance will proceed
southward as far as the Verdun-Paris
railway.

The forward movements east and west
of the Meuse proceed at an even pace; in
other words, as soon as a success has been
gained on one bank, the line is straight-
ened out by a subsequent advance on the
other. The definite fall of Verdun will be
forced from the northeast and northwest.

A Year of the War in Italy

[Written for CURRENT HISTORY by a Staff Contributor]

IT has been said that of all the im-
mensely varied and widespread bat-
tlefields of the world war — and they
stretch from the Gulf of Finland
in the north to the south of Africa, from
the English Channel to the Yellow Sea
of China, with sea fights even more re-
mote — the Italian battle front is the most
beautiful and full of romance. It is
also, unless, perhaps, we except the
frozen peaks and passes of the Caucasus,
in which Russian troops often fought up
to their breasts in snow, by far the most
difficult; immensely long, stretching in
a jagged line 400 miles from end to end,
it is, for the most part, immensely high
also; every half dozen miles there are
summits running up to seven or eight
or even ten thousand feet. The battle
is being fought along an international
boundary running among the Alps, and
the boundary has been made to run
from mountain summit to mountain sum-
mit, along precipices and lofty ridges of
gaunt, barren, or snow covered rock. Only
at two points — the valley leading down
to the northern end of the Lake of Garda,
and the coast land where the Isonzo River
enters the Gulf of Trieste— does the
Austro-Italian battle front come any-
where near to sea level; and, along the
Isonzo, the actual battle line now runs
along the verge of the Carso, which is a
huge, desolate bastion of rock.

Italy is fighting to bring under her
standard (the tricolor of red, white, and
green) the territory which lies on the
further side of this precipitous wall of
rock, territory for the most part only
less barren and precipitous than the rug-
ged boundary wall itself. Save for
three cities — Trent, Gorizia, Trieste — the
stakes would hardly be worth the contest.
But it is, with Italy, a point of honor and
nationalism; and for her nationalism
Italy is paying high. She seeks to re-
unite to her territory these three cities,
each of which is overwhelmingly Italian
in population and tradition — and, with
them, to gain a few more little towns and

villages, a few Alpine valleys and much
barren rock. For ten months Italy
wrangled with Austria over these towns
and villages; then, on Sunday, May 23,
1915, set on fire by the burning eloquence
of Gabriele D'Annunzio, she declared war,
nominally" against Austria alone; but
legally, as the Leipsic courts have just
decided, against Germany also.

It has been openly said that Italy really
protracted the negotiations with Austria
in order to prepare more thoroughly for
war, in order to train her men and to
lay up the immense stores of munitions
that modern war requires. But at last
she felt prepared, and on Monday, May
24, her troops rushed forward at chosen
points all along the jagged, lofty line,
seizing advantageous posts and passes,
from the southern corner of Switzerland
to the Isonzo. -Italy's Alpinists with
their light mountain guns, a force created
and trained with a view to this very kind
of fighting, struggled, high in the air,
against the Tyrolean sharpshooters,
mountaineers as skillful, as hardy, as
brave; and to this frontier Austria also
brought large bodies of Slavonic troops,
whose fidelity in fighting against their
Slavonic cousins in the east was more
than doubtful.

In the early Summer of 1915 the Ital-
ian Alpini fought their way from the
Stelvio Pass, which leads into Eastern
Switzerland and the Engadine, up the
glacial peaks of the Ortler, which rises
nearly 13,000 feet above the Italian
plains; a little further south, half way
between the corner of Switzerland and
Lake Garda, they scaled Mount Adamello,
some 12,000 feet; on the other side of the
southward-pointing Trentino wedge, in
the battle zone called the Cadore sector,
they rushed through the lovely little city
of Cortina, with its mountain roads lead-
ing westward to Bolzano (Bozen) and
northward to Brunech, and thence to the
Brenner Pass, the great highway, some
4,400 feet high, which leads from Italy
to the Tyrol; they swarmed across the

642 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

mountain wall into the Daone Valley, im-
mediately to the west of Lake Garda, and
south of Mount Adamello; they seized
Monte Altissimo, (which, in spite of its
name, is not " the highest " peak, though
it measures well over 6,000 feet;) they
captured Ala, on the River Adige, about
half way between the Italian frontier and
Rovereto, (which is a name softened from
the old Roman, Roboretum, "the oak
wood";) Monte Maggio, and the terri-
tory between the Chiesa and the Brenta,
which flows past Borgo through the Val
Sugana, the great road to the central
and ardently desired City of Trent.

The work of trench-building is here re-
placed by the more arduous task of hew-
ing positions out of bare rock, and hence
the extraordinary difficulty and extreme
slowness of the Italian advance. In the
Trentino, the most westerly of the four
Italian battle zones, (Trentino, Cadore,
Carnia, Isonzo,) the Alpini occupied the
southern end of the Val Giudecaria, to
the west of Lake Garda; the southern
end of Val Lagarina, to the east of the
lake; the eastern end of the Val Sugana,
up to Borgo; and a very thin slice of
rock, joining the Trentino sector to
Cadore.

The Cadore sector lies right along the
western end of the Carnic Alps, from
Monte Cristallo, (some 10,000 feet high,)
across the peaks of Tre Cime, Monte
Popera, Monte Croce, to Monte Peralba,
none of them much lower than Monte
Cristallo; from the frontier a sea of
peaks extends southward toward the
Venetian plain; another sea of peaks ex-
tends northward toward the Hohe Tauern
in Tyrol. As early as August, 1915,
the Alpini had made some headway here,
in brilliant, perilous work among the
precipices, with the result that, when the
first snows of Autumn fell, the three
rock citadels, the Einser, the Elfer, and
the Drei Zinnen, had been won and for-
tified against the Austrians.

Taking Cortina as their base, the Ital-
ians fough their way up the Valle d'Am-
pezzo, just west of Monte Cristallo, until
they won Ospitale, the little town through
which the curiously angular road leads
northward to the Puster Thai and
Brunech. In September they succeeded,

by daring rock work, in gaining posses-
sion of Monte Coston. Then the snow
began to fall on the heights. During the
first period of soft snow, military opera-
tions became almost impossible, even for
the hardy and skillful Alpini, but, as the
snow hardened, and the use of skis be-
came possible, some incredibly daring
achievements were carried out, for ex-
ample, on the north slopes of Monte
Adamello, (which lies, as we have said,
about half way between the Lake of
Garda and Switzerland,) and on the
Presanella, immediately to the north of
Adamello, to which the Alpini made their
way through the Tonale Pass.

•The battle sector of Carnia, which lies
between the Cadore and the Isonzo sec-
tors, is, if possible, more barren, rugged,
desolate than the Cadore sector itself.
It lies wholly along the backbone of the
Carnic Alps, which separate the very
mountainous regions of Northern Vene-
tia from the Austrian valleys of the
Zeglia (or Gail) and the Save. Here
the battle line has all along clung very
close to the international boundary, be-
ing, for the most part, just north of it,
so that the Italians have some slight
(but very slight) advantage. At about
Pontafel, where the railroad from Ven-
ice to Vienna crosses from Italian to
Austrian territory, the Carnia sector
merges into the Isonzo sector; and in
this fourth and last sector, which con-
tains the richest prizes, there has been
the severest fighting, conforming more
to the general features of armed con-
flict, and less resembling chamois hunt-
ing.

The Isonzo Valley, widening- to the
south, allows the warm southern airs of
Italy to penetrate far northward from
the Gulf of Trieste; so that Gorizia, in
the neck of the valley, has for centuries
been famed as a Winter resort, and, in
Spring, a place where peaches ripen
earlier than anywhere else in the Aus-
trian Empire. It is, indeed, the centre
of a great fruit garden, almost Califor-
nian in climate, in products, in vegeta-
tion. Gorizia itself lies about a high
rock, on which is perched the ancient
citadel-fortress of the Dukes of Gorizia
and Gradisca; it is the centre of a ring

C55P

643

644 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

of hills, and much of the ring is still in
Austrian hands; so that, though Italian
guns have for several months com-
manded Gorizia, Italian troops have
found it either impossible or at least
inexpedient to penetrate there.

On the railroad from Udine, on the
Italian side, in the centre of the Friul
country which rejoices in a Romanic
tongue of its own, somewhat nearer to
Latin than is Italian, to Gorizia, the
first station on the Austrian side of the
frontier, is Cormons, which lies at the
southern verge of the hills that descend
gradually from the Carnic and Julian
Alps to the Venetian plain; Cormons
was captured, soon after the beginning
of the war, by General Count Cadorna's
forces, and has since served as a basis
of operations against Gorizia.

It may be said that, as regards
Gorizia, the effort of the Italian com-
mand seems to have been rather to ex-
ericise a steady pressure, such as would
compel Austria to keep considerable
bodies of troops there, than to take the
City of Gorizia by storm, at the cost of
very heavy Italian losses. The strategy
of Count Cadorna is, therefore, to be
viewed rather as a part of the wrhole
plan of the Quadruple Entente than as
a separate aggressive, designed im-
mediately to win territory for Italy.
One would say that the purpose of Italy
is to divert troops from other Entente
fronts, counting on the peace negotia-
tions rather than on actual fighting to
restore the territory of Unredeemed
Italy. At any rate, after thirteen
months of war, Italy has advanced only
a few miles toward Trent, only a few
miles toward Gorizia, only a few miles
toward Trieste — the three real prizes of
the war. There has been pretty con-
stant artillery fighting on all four
frontiers, but, from the nature of the
regions, there have been few infantry
charges.

The valley of the Isonzo is bounded, on
the east by the curious Carso (or Karst)
plateau, which is one of the most deso-

late and forbidding regions in Europe. A
lofty plateau of grayish limestone, the
Carso was once heavily wooded, and fair-
ly fertile, where clearings were made in
the forests. But the trees were reck-
lessly cut down and carried away; and,
as the rains began to beat directly on the
very thin layer of soil that covered the
whitish limestone rock, the water swept
the soil away, leaving the rock entirely
bare. So that, even in Summertime, the
Carso plateau looks as if it were covered
with dirty snow. In the limestone, how-
ever, it is possible to excavate trenches
such as are seen on the other fronts, and
very severe trench warfare has been go-
ing on here for months, the Italians
gradually making their way, first up the
front of the great rock bastion, then
eastward and southward, along its sur-
face.

The battle line reaches the sea just
eastward of Monfalcone, which is only
about twelve miles from Trieste. Trieste
is the greatest prize of the Italian cam-
paign, a fine harbor, and rich commercial
city, almost wholly inhabited by Italians;
and, with the whole peninsula of Istria,
and, indeed, much of the Dalmatian coast,
rich in remains of the great past of the
Roman Empire. Pola and Fiume are
Italian cities of Istria, only less impor-
tant and less coveted than Trieste it-
self.

Three of the four Italian war sectors
are, as we have seen, along the back-
bones of high mountain ridges; and the
snow, in the Winter of 1915-16, fell
thicker and deeper than in other years.
As a result, the higher passes are only
now, at the beginning of July, beginning
to be passable for any one but an Alpino
on skis, so that ordinary warfare is prac-
tically impossible. The Isonzo front
alone is enjoying the early warmth of
Summer, and it will soon be exceedingly
hot across the desolate Carso.

Such, then, along the four sectors, was
the general position, after a year's war-
fare, when the recent powerful Austrian
drive began.

The Austrian Offensive Against Italy

SIMULTANEOUSLY with the ending
of Italy's first year of war against
Austria, which from its beginning
had been for Austria a continuous defen-
sive campaign, with loss of some territory
and prestige, the Hapsburg Monarchy
suddenly inaugurated a powerful offen-
sive movement, which for a time bade
fair to overwhelm the Italian forces
along the whole western Alpine front.

The full seriousness of this counter-
offensive was discovered by the Italians
on May 17, when the Austrian troops
begun plowing through the Ledro and
Lagarina Valleys — also into the zone
between the Terragnolo and Upper
Astico Valleys — and began a fierce
artillery attack on the Isonzo front.
The Italians fell back from nearly every
advanced position in the region t)f
Southern Tyrol, while the Austro-Hun-
garians pursued their advantage with
furious artillery and infantry attacks
along the entire Trentino front. It is
estimated that the Austrians employed
over 2,000 guns of heavy calibre in the
initial preparation, and the weight of
metal thrown is said to have been
heavier, considering the length of time
and the extent of the sector, than at any
other front during the entire war — ex-
cept at Verdun. It is estimated that
360,000 reinforcements were brought
from Galicia and the Balkans, and that
when the drive began the Austrians had
at least 750,000 men.

The plan of campaign was skillfully
laid, and with such secrecy that the
Italians were not fully aware of what

was happening until they had lost many
of the outposts conquered through a
whole year's sacrifices of blood and
treasure.

For ten days the Austrian drive
showed no signs of weakening. The
Italians continued, to retreat with a loss
of over 30,000 prisoners and 298 can-
non. The Austrians recovered many
strategic points in the Sugana Valley,
including Monte Baldo, Monte Fiara,
Monte Priafora, Punta Cordin, and
penetrated into Italian territory in the
region of Asiago and Arsiero. It was
not until May 25, about 10 days after
the offensive was launched, that the
Italians were able to meet the invaders
with strength and determination. Final-
ly their counterattacks began to tell,
and the Austrians slowly fell back or
were prevented from further advances.
At the beginning of June the great
Russian offensive was launched in
Bukowina and Galicia, with such over-
whelming results that the Austrians
were compelled hastily to abandon the
Italian campaign and endeavor to stay
the onslaught at the East.

Meanwhile Italy had been stirred to
the centre by the events in the high
Alps, resulting in the fall of the Minis-
try. At this writing a coalition Gov-
ernment is being formed. Apparently
the Italians have entirely recovered
command of the military situation, and
are winning back some of the lost ter-
ritory. It is understood that they will
soon begin a new and more serious offen-
sive all along the front.

America's International Relations

Party Platforms on War Issues

PLATFORM declarations on the war
and international relations by the
two great political parties, as
adopted at the respective Nation-
al Conventions, were as follows :

REPUBLICAN PLANKS
lAdopted June S, 1918]

In 1861 the Republican Party stood for the
Union. As it stood for the union of States,
it now stands for a united people, true to
American ideals, loyal to American tradi-
tions, knowing- no allegiance except to the
Constitution, to the Government, and to the
flag of the United States. We believe in
American policies at home and abroad.

We declare that we believe in and will
enforce the protection of every American
citizen in all the rights secured to him by the
Constitution, treaties, and the law of na-
tions, at home and abroad, by land and sea.
These rights, which, in violation of the
specific promise of their party, made at Bal-
timore in 1912, the Democratic President and
the Democratic Congress have failed to de-
fend, we will unflinchingly maintain.

We desire peace, the peace of justice and
right, and believe in maintaining a straight
and honest neutrality between the belligerents
in the great war in Europe. We must per-
form all our duties and insist upon all our
rights as neutrals, without fear and without
favor. We believe that peace and neutrality,
as well as the dignity and influence of the
United States, cannot be preserved by shifty
expedients, by phrasemaking, by perform-
ances in language, or by attitudes ever
changing- in an effort to secure groups of
voters.

The present Administration has destroyed
our influence abroad and humiliated us in our
own eyes. The Republican Party believes
that a firm, consistent, and courageous for-
eign policy, always maintained by Repub-
lican Presidents in accordance with American
traditions, is the best, as it is the only true
way to preserve our peace and restore us
to our rightful place among the nations. We
believe in the pacific settlement of inter-
national disputes and favor the establish-
ment of a world court for that purpose.

We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe
Doctrine, and declare its maintenance to be
a policy of this country essential to its pres-
ent and future peace and safety, and to the
achievement of its manifest destiny. * * *

Such are our principles, such are our pur-
poses and policies. We close as we began.
The times are dangerous, and the future is
fraught with peril. The great issues of the
day have been confused by words and

phrases. The American spirit, which made
the country and saved the Union, has been
forgotten by those charged with the responsi-
bility of power. We appeal to all Americans,
whether naturalized or native born, to prove
to the world that we are Americans in
thought and in deed, with one loyalty, one
hope, one aspiration. * * *

DEMOCRATIC PLANKS
lAdopted June 16, 1916]

AMERICANISM. — The part that the United
States will play in the new day of interna-
tional relationships which is now upon us
will depend upon our preparation and our
character. The Democratic Party therefore
recognizes the assertion and triumphant
demonstration of the indivisibility and co-
herent strength of the nation, as the supreme
issue of this day, in which the whole world
faces the crisis of manifold change. It sum-
mons all men, of whatever origin or creed,
who would count themselves Americans to
join in making clear to all the world the
unity and consequent power of America.

This is an issue of patriotism. To taint
it with partisanship would be to defile it.
In this day of test, America must show it-
self, not a nation of partisans, but a nation
of patriots. There is gathered here in
America the best of the blood, the industry,
and the genius of the whole world, the ele-
ments of a great race, and a magnificent
society to be melted into a mighty and splen-
did nation.

Whoever, actuated by the purpose to pro-
mote the interest of a foreign power, in dis-
regard of our own country's welfare or to
injure this Government in its foreign rela-
tions or cripple or destroy its industries at
home, and whoever, by arousing prejudices of
a racial, religious, or other nature, creates
discord and strife among our people so as to
obstruct the wholesome process of unification,
is faithless to the trust which the privileges
of citizenship repose in him and disloyal to
his country.

We, therefore, condemn as subversive of
this nation's unity and integrity, and as de-
structive of its welfare, the activities and de-
signs of every group or organization, political
or otherwise, that has for its object the ad-
vancement of the interest of a foreign power,
•whether such object is promoted by intimi-
dating the Government, a political party, or
representatives of the people, or which is cal-
culated and tends to divide our people into
antagonistic groups, and thus to destroy that
complete agreement and solidarity of the
people, and that unity of sentiment and na-
tional purpose so essential to the perpetuity
of the nation and its free institutions.

AMERICA'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

647

We condemn all alliances and combinations
of individuals in this country of whatever
nationality or descent, who agree and con-
spire together for the purpose of embarrass-
ing or weakening our Government or of im-
properly influencing or coercing our public
representatives in dealing or negotiating with
any foreign power. We charge that such
conspiracies among a limited number exist,
and have been instigated for the purpose of
advancing the interests of foreign countries
to the prejudice and detriment of our own
country. We condemn any political party
which, in riew of the activity of such con-
spirators, surrenders its integrity or modifies
its policy.

PREPAREDNESS. — Along with the proof of our
character as a nation must go the proof of
our power to play the part that legitimately
belongs to us. The people of the United
States love peace. They respect the rights
and covet the friendship of all other nations.
They desire neither any additional territory
nor any advantage which cannot be peacefully
gained by their skill, their industry, or their
enterprise ; but they insist upon having abso-
lute freedom of national life and policy, and
feel that they owe it to themselves, and to the
role of spirited independence which it is their
sole ambition to play, that they should render
themselves secure against the hazard of in-
terference from any quarter, and should be
able to protect their rights upon the seas or
in any part of the world. We, therefore,
favor the maintenance of an army fully ade-
quate to the requirements of order, of safety,
and of the protection of the nation's rights,
the fullest development of modern methods
of seacoast defense, and the maintenance of
an adequate reserve of citizens trained to
arms and prepared to safeguard the people
and territory of the United States against
any danger of hostile action which may
unexpectedly arise, and a fixed policy for
the continuous development of a navy
worthy to support the great naval tra-
ditions of the United States, and fully equal
to the international tasks which the United
States hopes and expects to take a part in
performing. The plans and enactments of
the present Congress afford substantial proof
of our purpose in this exigent matter.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. — The Democratic
Administration has throughout the present
war scrupulously and successfully held to the
old paths of neutrality and of the peaceful
pursuit of the legitimate objects of our na-
tional life, which statesmen of all parties and
creeds have prescribed for themselves in
America since the beginning of our history.
But the circumstances of the last two years
have revealed necessities of international ac-
tion which no former generation can have
foreseen. We hold that it is the duty of the
United States to use its power, not only to
make itself safe at home, but also to make
secure its just interests throughout the world,
and both for this end and in the interest of
humanity, to assist the world in securing

settled peace and justice. We believe that
every people has the right to choose the sov-
ereignty under which it shall live; that the
small States of the world have a right to enjoy
from other nations the same respect for their
sovereignty and for their territorial integrity
that great and powerful nations expect and in-
sist upon, and that the world has a right to be
free from every disturbance of its peace that
has its origin in aggression or disregard of
the rights of peoples and nations, and we
believe that the time has come when
it is the duty of the United States to
join with the other nations of the world
in any feasible association that will ef-
fectively serve these principles, to main-
tain inviolate the complete security of the
highway of the seas for the common and un-
hindered use of all nations.

The present Administration has consistently
sought to act upon and realize in its conduct
of the foreign affairs of the nation the prin-
ciple that should be the object of any associa-
tion of the nations formed to secure the peace
of the world and the maintenance of national
and individual rights. It has followed the
highest American traditions. It has pre-
ferred respect for the fundamental rights of
smaller States, even to property interests,
and has secured the friendship of the people
of these States for the United State's by re-
fusing to make a more material interest an
excuse for the assertion of our superior power
against the dignity of their sovereign inde-
pendence. It has regarded the lives of its
citizens and the claims of humanity as of
greater moment than material rights, and
peace as the best basis for the just settle-
ment of commercial claims. It has made
the honor and ideals of the United States its
standard alike in negotiation and action.

PAN-AMERICAN CONCORD. — We recognize now,
as we have always recognized, a definite and
common interest between the United States
with the other peoples and republics of the
Western Hemisphere in all matters of national
independence and free political development.
We favor the establishment and maintenance
of the closest relations of amity and mutual
helpfulness between the United States and
the other republics of the American continents
for the support of peace and the promotion
of a common prosperity. To that end we
favor all measures which may be necessary
to facilitate intimate intercourse and promote
commerce between the United States and her
neighbors to the south of us, and such inter-
national understandings as may be practica-
ble and suitable to accomplish these ends.

We commend the action of the Democratic
Administration in holding the Pan-American
Financial Conference at Washington in May,
1915, and organizing the International High
Commission, which represented the United
States in the recent meeting of representa-
tives of the Latin-American republics at
Buenos Aires, April, 1916, which have so
greatly promoted the friendly relations be-
tween the people of the Western Hemisphere.

The Inside of the Irish Revolt

By Arnold Bennett

Noted English Novelist and Publicist

IN common with a majority of the
Sinn Feiners themselves, I was con-
siderably startled by the Irish rebell-
ion. Just before it occurred I had
been studying the everlasting Irish ques-
tion, and this sanguinary revolt did not
seem to agree with the conclusions I had
drawn. As soon as the
firing was over and
men's souls calmed
down a little I sought
to inform myself as to
the realities behind
the tragic and tawdry
threatrical display. I
need not detail my in-
quiries. It suffices to
say that I was fortu-
nate. In no quarter
was my desire for in-
formation balked. 1
obtained new facts,
but the important re-
sult of the inquest in
my own mind was a
rearrangement of the
old facts into their
proper perspective.

The revolutionary
movement was not
pure Sinn Fein. The
problem of Ireland, and in particular
the problem of Dublin, with its un-»
surpassed slums, is not purely a problem
of interracial politics. The chief sources
of discontent are not political, but social.
Connolly commanded the late rising, and
Connolly was a disciple of Larkin. Larkin
has said, and said often, that he would
not give a fig for home rule if he could
insure a minimum wage of £1 a week for
all workers. Therein he showed his sense
and a true appreciation of values. Again
there are, or were, in Ireland sundry per-
sonalties who for political crimes, in-
cluding homicide, had suffered severe
punishment under British law. They
needed revenge. These three types, labor

N O L. D

insurgent, unadulterated Sinn Fein, and
apostle of vengeance, had often quar-
reled, but finally they coalesced under
the stimulus of a common end and made
rebellion. Connolly represented the first
type, MacNeil the second, and Clarke, the
old Fenian, the third. The directing
element was the labor
element, not the Sinn
Fein element.

In its constitution
the rebel organiza-
tion was autocratic
to the point of Prus-
sianism. Discipline
was absolutely rigid.
The executive con-
sisted of a very small
handful of men who
knew everything; the
rank and file knew
nothing, and their
sole privilege wras to
obey. It is quite
clear, from the admis-
sions of deported reb-
els, that when they
fell in on Easter Mon-
day they had no ad-
equate idea of what
awaited them. They
expected a brief and showy demonstration
in force, and no more. They went to their
assigned posts, and immediately the lead-
ers began to use their rifles, thus com-
mitting the rank and file irrevocably to
the adventure. The rank and file could
not go back home, or even pause for re-
flection, and the rank and file were very
young. They were pathetically young.
The mass of those deported are of sopho-
more age.

Now, the autocratic principle is always
the principle of secret societies. It is the
principle, for example, of the Clan-na-
Gael. It is, indeed, essential to secrecy.
It works excellently provided the auto-
crats be wise and the slaves abject. In.

B E N

THE INSIDE OF THE IRISH REVOLT

649

the Irish case neither condition was
fulfilled. The leaders were gullible and
rash, and many of the slaves had such
objection to Prussian ideas that they
seceded before the culminating event.

The explanation of the very rapid de-
velopment of the rebellion is twofold.
It lies both in internal causes and in
external causes. The main internal
causes were as follows:

First, the vigor and success of the
recruiting campaign in Ireland, which
had aroused jealousy and fear in the
councils of sedition. Ireland's general
loyalty to the Allies was in part the
origin of her misfortune.

Second, mistrust of the Nationalist
Parliamentary Party on account of its
enthusiastic official support of the
British War Government and of its con-
sent to postponing home rule.

Third, fear of conscription for Ire-
land— an absurd fear.

Fourth, the influence of the younger
priests, and especially of those who
spring from the laboring class and
are implacable on the subject of labor
grievances, very legitimate grievances.

The external causes were the Clan-na-
Gael in the United States and support
promised through the Clan-na-Gael and
through other minor channels by the Ger-
man Government.

The Clan-na-Gael is an interesting and
rather human society, so far as I have
ascertained. Its autocrats completely ex-
elude respectability. They will have no
truck with that quality. Its funds are
drawn partly from members' subscrip-
tions and partly from Germany. All
subsidies are paid direct to a small secret
executive. Accounts are not furnished to
members. That graft on a mighty scale
is unknown to the Clan-na-Gael appears
to me improbable. Still, subscribers and
foreign Governments occasionally demand
something for their money, and at such
periods the Clan-na-Gael has set about
to do something. No doubt it does as
little as it can because its existence de-
pends on the continuance of the Irish
problem. It was and is terrifically op-
posed to the Home Rule act for the rea-
son that home rule would put an end to
the Irish problem.

The Clan-na-Gael was delighted and
greatly invigorated when the Irish Vol-
unteers were formed in answer to the
Ulster Volunteers of Carson, and when
the Irish Volunteers split into two un-
equal parts, the loyal majority follow-
ing Redmond, the Clan-na-Gael was still
more delighted. It nursed the irrecon-
cilable remnant with literature and with
arms and generally luxuriated in Irish
domestic strife.

It openly discussed the project of using
the Volunteers against Britain, whether
home rule became law or not. In The
Gaelic American of June 6, 1914, it was
suggested that the Volunteers should be
officered from the Sixty-ninth Regiment
of New York.

When the war broke out the grandiose
scheme of the German-Irish propaganda
was initiate'd in the United States. Amer-
ican citizens were wont to encounter it
viva voce in front of the newspaper
offices and in hotels, subways, and trol-
ley cars. In spite of the extreme multi-
plicity of its agents and of the majestic
indifference of the British Government
to pro-ally American newspapers, the
scheme failed, but it cost a lot of
money.

In August, 1915, the Clan-na-Gael was
obviously hard up and its supporters were
obviously discontented. The executive
seem to have got an imposing grant from
Germany. They collected heartily also
from their members. A defense-of-Ire-
land fund was started and a collecting
card sent out. The phraseology of this
card, which I have seen, leaves not the
slightest doubt as to the object of the
fund. The collection was not a success,
and much of the German money appar-
ently vanished in graft. What remained
was used against the Allies.

After the Irish race convention held in
New York in March of this year a new
appeal was made, in which occur the fol-
lowing words :

" Not only must the organization be
made great in numbers, but in material
resources. It must be put in a position
successfully to grapple with the great
problem which it has been called into ex-
istence to solve by giving Ireland the help
which she so badly needs in this hour of

650 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

her great danger and of her opportu-
nity."

And there was a noticeable voyaging of
certain Irish-Americans between the
United States and England, Ireland, and
Germany. Then came Casement, Easter-
tide, and the rising.

The rising failed, but it did to a cer-
tain -small extent accomplish a diversion
of military energy and a disturbance of
the warlike concentration which Germany
hoped for. Germany bluffed the rebels
ia a manner characteristically cynical.
Even the modern German rifles which
she promised turned out to be obsolete
Russian rifles. The price, in addition to
money paid by Germany, for this tran-
sient success was a heavy price. It was
the complete loss of all Irish sympathy.

With regard to the actual outbreak, it
is established that as late as Easter
Saturday the component parts of the
rebel leadership were actually -at variance
as to the advisability of a revolt, the pure
Sinn Fein element, under MacNeil, argu-
ing from the Casement fiasco and the
arms fiasco, was against an immediate
insurrection, but the highly truculent and
rash labor element under Connolly bore
down MacNeil on the Sunday evening
and the rebellion was ordained.

The lack of premeditation accounted
for the first facile success. It also ac-
counted for the rapidity of the collapse.
The state of mind of the leaders was
such that they actually tried to obtain
guidance in tactics from British officers
whom they made prisoners! Perhaps
only in Ireland could a thing so richly
humorous happen.

The British soldiers had a mixed re-
ception. In one house they would re-
ceive cakes and ale, and in the next bul-
lets. The majority of citizens were
markedly sympathetic; the minority
virulent and treacherous in the extreme.
Upon occasion the methods of the sol-
diers may have been summary, but their
behavior was incomparably superior to
that of the insurrectionary bands. To
say this is not necessarily to accuse the
true Sinn Feiners themselves of fright-
fulness. It must be remembered that
the dregs of Dublin were joyously
abroad, and that these dregs were con-

siderable. They reveled in riot and were
not overcareful of their own lives.

As for the responsibility of the British
Government, it is gradually being ascer-
tained. Broadly, it was neither more nor
less than the historic responsibility in-
herited from hundreds of years of Anglo-
Saxon unimaginativeness. One may say
that Birrell, like other Secretaries for
Ireland, paid in his person for England's
atrocious vagaries in the eighteenth cen-
tury and the first three-quarters of the
nineteenth century.

But the Irish problem is not primarily
the result of bad government; it is the
result of incompatibility of temperament
between two races whom geography has
inseparably bound together. Evidence
before the Royal Commission shows that
the Government could not squelch the
Irish Volunteers because they could not
squelch Carson's Volunteers without
bloodshed, so one may go back and back
into time. Ulster is such and the rest of
Ireland is such that home rule could
not have been put into practice without
bloodshed. The British Government was
bound to hope against hope that blood-
shed might be avoided. The immediate
Governmental mistake was in overesti-
mating the common sense of the rebel
organization. If it had learned the les-
son of history it would have had more
soldiers in Dublin, and bloodshed would
have been not avoided but probably post-
poned until after the war.

The execution of the rebel leaders
aroused adverse comment. One cannot
foresee the verdict of history, but it is
certain that much less than 1 per cent,
of the rebels have been shot, and I think
an assaulted Government has rarely
shown greater magnanimity in a more
dangerous crisis. Mankind will progress
and the time will come when cold-blooded
homicide will- be as repugnant to the
majority as it is now to the minority,
and will cease to form a part of the ma-
chinery of justice; but at present the
structure of social order is ultimately
based on cold-blooded homicide.

If ever there was a rebellion in which
the leaders led and the rank and file were
kept in ignorance, the Easter rising in
Ireland was that rebellion. It was not a

THE INSIDE OF THE IRIS PI REVOLT

651

popular rising — it was artificial, it was
fostered from without. The responsible
leaders were autocrats. They knew just
what they were risking and that their
success might signify the saving of Ger-
many from defeat. By no means all the
leaders were Irish patriots, and even the
alleged pacifists among them wanted
armed rebellion. Thus the late Sheehy
Skeffington, whose pacifism strangely
has been accepted as axiomatic by all the
British newspapers, speaking at the cen-
tenary banquet of the John Mitchel
Club, appealed at great length for money

to buy arms with which to fight the
British Government when the time
came. He is dead; I greatly regret the
manner of his death; but a pacifist he
was not.

The executions are now over. The po-
litical prospects of Ireland are brighter.
Good may come out of evil. Racial tem-
peraments, however, will remain, and
geography will not alter. The argu-
ments for and against any kind of home
rule are tremendous, and therefore the
millennium is probably not at hand.

(Copyright, 1916, by The New York Times Co.)

Ireland and the Kaiser

By JOHN McF. HOWIE

At the beginning of the war THE NEW YORK TIMES published an account of a meeting
at Celtic Park under the auspices of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Hibernians.
Resolutions of sympathy for the Germans were passed and cabled to the Kaiser. A parade
was indulged in, headed by a large band. A German flag was unfurled, and the band
played " Die Wacht am Rhein." The lines written at that time are here offered as
equally apropos of the recent uprising in Ireland :

There's trouble in ould Oireland,

And in ould Europe, too;
The Kaiser's foightin' England,

We now know phwat to do.
We feel the call to arms,

For our country, yours and mine;
So we'll paste Ould England in the nose

And sing the " Wacht am Rhein."

iWe've suffered many a long, long year,

From Oppression's weary load;
We've felt the tyrant's heavy hand,

Been tortured by his goad.
But now the sky is all serene,

Our hearts are light, well nigh, Sir,
For it's " Raus mit Faugh a Ballagh,"

And it's up wid " Hoch der Kaiser."

Men's faces pale when Clan Nha Ghael

Or " Fenian " names we sphoke, Sir;
And now our hearts are beatin' high

To see Ould England broke, Sir.
We needn't suffer anny more

John Bull's sarcastic sallies;
Now we can sing, " T'ell wid the King "

Und " Deutschland iiber Alles."

Our bagpipe's blow a warlike blast

To summon one and all, Sir,
We're ready for the redcoats now,

We'll answer to the call, Sir.
Our whisky must go overboard,

No Dublin stout shall cheer, Sir;
Down wid historic old Potheen,

And up wid lager beer, Sir.

Now down wid France, now down wid Spain,

Now down wid Russia too, Sir;
Now down wid Italy and Greece,

The Orange and the Blue, Sir.
Up wid the good ould Irish flag,

Unfurl it in the sky, Sir;
Tuh 'ell wid everybody else,

Here's t' Oireland and the Kaiser!

[SECOND INSTALLMENT]

The Battle of Verdun

An Authoritative French Account Based On Official Records

By M. Ardouin-Dumazet

Military Editor of Le Temps and Le Figaro
[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY]

THURSDAY, April 6.— The battle
about Verdun, which seemed to be
ending in disconnected attacks,
suddenly took a new lease of life.
The object was to search out a weak
point, or to satisfy German opinion,
which has for so long been expecting an
important success. On Sunday, (April
9,) that is to say, fifty days after the
inception of the undertaking, which has
brought our enemy such a serious dis-
comfiture, a general offensive surpass-
ing in dimensions that of February was
let loose along the whole front from the
Forest of Montfaucon, near Avocourt, to
the ridges of the Meuse, near Vaux.
This is a battle line of nearly 25 kilo-
meters, (15^/2, miles,) that is, comparable
to that of the battle of Champagne.

The struggle was developed especially
on the left (west) bank of the Meuse,
between the forest and Cumieres. An
interval of 5 kilometers, (3 miles,) in-
cluding a wide stretch of meadows,
across which the river unrolls its me-
anderings, and the river bend of Champ-
neuville separated that zone from
Vacherauville, to which the Poivre Ridge
sinks down; the latter was equally the
scene of very active fighting, in the di-
rection of Douaumont. It may be said,
therefore, that there were two battles,
the more violent developing to the west.
We shall follow them separately, recall-
ing the events which preceded the new
offensive.

WEST OF THE MEUSE
We ended the preceding installment of
this narrative by saying that a German
attack against Haucourt had been re-
pulsed on April 4. A new attempt, pre-
ceded by the usual bombardment, took
place on the following day (Wednesday,

April 5) at nightfall, and was continued
all night long on the sector included be-
tween Avocourt and Bethincourt. The
enemy sent in very heavy forces. The
assaults against Bethincourt were stopped
by our fire, in spite of the furious fight-
ing of the battalions thrown against the
village. In the centre of the battle line,
Haucourt was attacked with especial vio-
lence. Ceaselessly driven back with enor-
. mous losses, the enemy constantly re-
turned to the charge. In the middle of
the night he finally succeeded in gaining
a footing amid the ruins of the village;
but we remained on the outskirts and,
from the neighboring heights, dominated
the hollow in which Haucourt lies hid-
den.

On the Avocourt side the initiative of
the struggle remained with us. After
bombarding the part of the wood held by
the Germans, our troops, leaping from
the recently won redoubt, carried by as-
sault the zone called Bois-Carre, (" the
square wood.") The following day
(Thursday, April 6) was employed by
the enemy in pushing the bombardment
of Bethincourt; then, toward the south,
the villages of Esnes and Montzeville
were bombarded. When night fell, hav-
ing increased the violence of the prelimi-
nary artillery struggle, the enemy
launched an attack between Bethincourt
and'Le Mort Homme, on the line marked
by the road from Cumieres. Near 265-
Meter Hill the enemy penetrated a first-
line trench, the greater part of which we
were able to recover by a counterattack.

Friday, April 7. — The attacks were re-
sumed with renewed fury. When their
heavy guns seemed to have cleared the
approaches of Haucourt to a distance of
2 kilometers (1& miles) to the east, in

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN

653

the direction of Bethincourt, a formidable
assault was attempted; but our cannon
and machine guns succeeded in smashing:
the enemy masses, which were compelled
to withdraw to their trenches, leaving the
ground strewn with dead bodies. During
this combat the German shells covered
Le Mort Homme and Cumieres. The at-
tempt was renewed during the night on
the same front; repeated attacks failed.
To the east, at the southern outlet from
Haucourt, between the village and a point
marked 287, two small works were, how-
ever, taken from us.

Saturday, April 8. — The day was
marked only by artillery fire. While the
enemy directed his fire from Bethincourt
to Cumieres, our artillery took as its tar-
get the German batteries in the Cheppy
Wood and in the zone comprised between
Malancourt and Montfaucon, where
enemy forces were massed. There were
still more considerable forces behind
Montfaucon, toward Nantillois, at the
end of one of the field railways connected
with the line from Sedan. Our heavy
batteries reached this point.

BETHINCOURT EVACUATED
Our command foresaw the grand of-
fensive which was to be let loose on the
morrow, Sunday, (April 9,) and met it
with such resources that the Germans
had already discounted their success.
During the night (Saturday-Sunday,
April 8-9) the salient formed by Bethin-
court in advance of our lines was evacu-
ated without the Germans seeming to be
aware of it; at least, they made no at-
tempt to interfere with the movement.
After this evacuation we had a less
twisted line, which therefore offered no
exposed point of approach.

Sunday, April 9. — Throughout the
whole day the enemy renewed his as-
saults without succeeding in shaking our
defensive. His attempts were especially
furious between Le Mort Homme and
Cumieres. The assailants, setting out
from the cover offered by the Corbeaux
and Cumieres Woods, came on in close
formation, offering a target for our gusts
of shells and for the bullets of our ma-
chine guns. After a series of efforts as
vain as they were frequent, the Germans

were compelled to withdraw, leaving the
ground covered with hundreds of corpses.
It was in this sector that their losses
were most important.. The elements
launched against Le Mort Homme suf-
fered equally.

Not less violent was the attack on the
sector comprised between the Avocourt
Wood and the Forges stream, down the
river from Haucourt. At all points it
was met by the tenacious resistance of
our soldiers, and this attack also was
broken. On the skirt of the Avocourt
Wood a German detachment succeeded at
one time in gaining a foothold in our
trenches ; it was quickly dislodged.

The, day was, therefore, a check for
the enemy along the whole front. At
night a new attack on Le Mort Homme
permitted the Germans to penetrate our
front-line trenches along a front of 500
meters (550 yards) at a cost of heavy
losses.

Monday, April 10. — On the night fol-
lowing, the bombardment was resumed
with great violence, being particularly
directed against 304-Meter Hill. This
cannonade was continued throughout
April 10, growing in intensity until noon,
at which time an attack was launched,
which extended from Haucourt to Beth-
incourt. In spite of the fury of the as-
sault the enemy was compelled to retire,
leaving the ground covered with his dead.
Between Le Mort Homme and Cumieres,
where he attacked with even greater
fury, all his attempts failed.

They were renewed in the evening,
with the aid of sprays of flaming liquids,
which were unable to force us to give up
Le Mort Homme. When the enemy
masses came out from the Corbeaux
Wood they were stopped short by our
gun and rifle fire. At the extreme right
of our line certain small elements of
trenches were occupied by the enemy.

Tuesday, April 11. — On this day there
was no infantry attack but cannon
thundered incessantly from Le Mort
Homme to Cumieres, preparing a new at-
tempt for the next morning.

Wednesday, April 12. — The little Cau-
rettes Wood, situated to the south of the
road from Le Mort Homme to Gumieres,
was assaulted; in spite of the employ-

654 CURRENT HISTORY." A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ment of flaming liquids, the enemy was
stopped and everywhere repulsed.
EAST OF THE MEUSE
On the right (east) bank of the Meuse,
during the week April 6-12, the enemy
made a considerable effort at first only
on the Poivre Ridge. It will be remem-
bered that this long backbone with de-
nuded sides extends for almost 3 kilo-
meters (1% miles) from the approaches
of Louvemont as far as the Meuse, above
the goose foot formed by the roads from
Vacherauville. On this side, a little
wood covers the slope above the river and
descends to a ravine in which the spring
of Saint Martin has its source.

On Thursday, April 6, an intense bom-
bardment was directed against our lines,
the prelude of an infantry attack, which
was expected to develop great violence.
But our guns intervened with so much
precision that the enemy did not venture
forth from his cover. Then he remained
quiet until April 9. On that day, in
spite of a powerful artillery preparation,
the assaulting masses were no more suc-
cessful in their effort to come forth.
During the night a very lively engage-
ment was fought in the little wood beside
the spring of Saint Martin, and during
the whole of the next day the bombard-
ment continued.

Further to the east, the positions which
we had reoccupied in the Caillette Wood,
to the south of the Douaumont front,
were assaulted on Wednesday, April 5;
the enemy was compelled to withdraw
after suffering heavy losses. On the fol-
lowing day, April 6, we resumed the
struggle with the bayonet, driving our
enemies back on a front of 500 meters
(550 yards) and to a depth of 200 meters,
(220 yards;) a counterattack failed to
drive us out of the trenches we had re-
gained.

On the following days we continued
step by step to gain ground in the com-
municating trenches. On April 9 the
contest begun on the Poivre Ridge was
extended as far as the approaches to
Vaux; at no point was the enemy able
to carry out the assault. On April 10
several attempts against the Caillette
Wood were repulsed. During the night
an attack, preceded by jets of burning

liquids and directed against trenches
which we had gained the day before in
the approaches to the village 'of Douau-
mont, cost the aggressors a sanguinary
check, after which the Germans furiously
resumed the bombardment of the region
of Douaumont and Vaux, while the can-
nonade was continued against our posi-
tions on the hills.

The enemy had not given up the hope
of capturing Douaumont, the Caillette
Wood, and the approaches of Vaux. On
Tuesday, April 10, he resumed the bom-
bardment with renewed vigor, following
up the rain of giant shells with furious
gusts of lachrymal or asphyxiating
shells. Taking for granted that our
trenches were either abandoned or filled
only with dying men, the enemy launched
a strong attack from Douaumont to Vaux.
Certain of our communication trenches
were invaded, but an immediate counter-
attack drove out the Germans, who left
a hundred prisoners in our hands.

The inspiring Order of the Day ad-
dressed to his troops by General Petain,
who is so reserved in his expressions,
bears witness to the importance of the
German check on Sunday, April 9 :

April 9 is a glorious day for our armies.
The furious assaults of the soldiers of the
Crown Trince were broken everywhere; the
infantrymen, the artillerymen, the sappers,
the airmen of the second army, vied with
one another in heroism.
Honor to all !

Doubtless the Germans will attack again ;
let every one work and watch in order to
gain the same success as on yesterday.
Courage. * * * We shall get them!
The period April 13-19 was, on the
contrary, marked by only one serious at-
tack, and it was quite local in character.

A FURIOUS ATTACK
At the beginning of this period the re-
ports recorded a moderate activity in the
batteries between the Meuse and Douau-
mont.

Thursday, April 13. — On the evening
of this day the fire became heavier in
preparation for a small attack to the
south of Douaumont, which was com-
pletely repulsed. Beginning from this
moment the gun fire became hotter and
hotter.

Friday, April 14; Saturday, April 15.
— In spite of this heavy and long-con-

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN

655

tinued fire, our infantry on the evening
of April 15 delivered a vigorous offensive
against the German trenches at Douau-
mont. The official report did not lay
much stress on this affair, which must
have been hot, nevertheless, as we took
200 prisoners and occupied certain trench
elements.

Sunday, April 16; Monday, April 17. —
On these two days artillery fire con-
tinued; the German guns had as their
principal objective the south of the Hau-
dromont Woods, which cover the ridges
and slopes, seamed with ravines, of a
valley which opens on the Meuse toward
Bras, at the foot of the last slopes of the
Poivre Ridge. On April 17 the bombard-
ment was accentuated.

Tuesday, April 18. — In the morning
the fire became furious, from the Meuse
near Bras to Douaumont. The Poivre
Ridge, whose culminating point, 342
meters, (1,121 feet,) is some 150 meters
(492 feet) above the water level of the
Meuse; the Haudromont Woods to the
north of the valley, the Chaufour Wood
to the south, whose edge approaches
Douaumont, were covered with shells,
which steadily increased in numbers until
2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Then the attack was let loose. The
first information was that at least two
divisions had been launched in the as-
sault against this front of 4 kilometers,
(2V2 miles;) the second information an-
nounced the presence of regiments be-
longing to five different divisions. These
troops, gathered from different army
corps, re-formed, completed, had been
brought together in two divisions of three
brigades each, or twelve regiments, equal
to an army corps and a half. It was,
therefore, a very great effort; the as-
saulting mass comprised about 35,000
men, who presented themselves before
our lines — lines that might be thought to
have been crushed by the prodigious
artillery fire; but the moment the masses
appeared our barring fire opened upon
them, cannon and machine guns tearing
bloody rents in their ranks. At the two
ends of the Poivre Ridge, near the Meuse
and the Haudromont Wood, the attack
had been more furious; there, especially,
were their dead heaped up. Along this

whole front of 4 kilometers the enemy
was thus repulsed, but on our right the
Germans succeeded in penetrating our
first-line trench to the south of the Chau-
four Wood. A counterattack drove them
out of a part of it.

These events between the Meuse and
the Woevre coincided with an almost
continuous gun fire, against the ridges of
the Meuse. Moulainville, situated below
the fort of that name, which protects on
the southern side the entrance into the
ridges of the railway and of the road
from Conflans, and Haudiomont, where
the road from Metz enters the hills to
reach Verdun, were made especial targets.
An attack was being prepared on this
side; movements of troops were an-
nounced in Woevre; our cannon, installed
on the approaches of the road from Pont-
a-Mousson to St. Mihiel, reached con-
voys between Nonsard and Essey, in the
valleys of La Machine and Le Rupt du
Mad. In the same quarter, at the foot of
the ridges, massing enemy troops were
dispersed.

Wednesday, April 19. — The enemy at
last attempted an infantry operation
against our positions of Les Eparges; it
was driven out of the only trench which
it succeeded in reaching.

BATTERING MORT HOMME

During the whole week it might have
been thought that important events
would take place 09 the west (left bank)
of the Meuse, but no infantry movement
took place, in spite of the persistence and
violence of the gun, fire. On Wednesday,
April 12, numerous indications suggested
the preparation 'for an assault at the
close of the day. Our artillery then
opened fire on the enemy trenches and
the troops signaled as massing in the
Malancourt Wo6*d. This gun fire resulted
in preventing the formation- of the as-
saulting columns; the Germans on the
first line did not leave their trenches.

Up to Wednesday, April 19, the whole
conflict was confined to an artillery duel,
the enemy's fire at times being directed
with extreme intensity against the little
Caurettes Wood, between Cumieres and
Le Mort Homme, 304-Meter Hill, and
even our second lines, without doubt

656 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

from Montzeville to the Bourrus Wood.
While answering the fire of our ad-
versaries, our batteries also carried their
action beyond them. The Corbeaux
Wood, the passages of the Forges stream,
the roads which spread out from Mont-
faucon ar-d lead to the attacked front,
felt the effect of our projectiles.

During the next few days the fighting
about Verdun continued, but with longer
intervals, on less extended fronts, and
with diminished fury, although preceded
by extremely violent bombardments.

On the right (east) bank of the Meuse
there was only one attack; two took place
on the left (west) bank. None of them
allowed the Germans to realize the
smallest gain of ground, while several
actions on our part won us communica-
tion trenches which strengthened our
lines. Progress of this kind was made to
the northwest of the pond at Vaux and
to the south of the Haudromont Wood,
between Douaumont and Bras.

Thursday, April 20. — The attack which
we repulsed was directed on the evening
of April 20, from the Thiaumont farm, to
the southwest of Douaumont, up to the
pond at Vaux. After the usual furious
bombardment, the enemy masses suc-
ceeded in getting a first footing in a part
of our lines; instantly counterattacked,
the assailants were driven out and
pressed back upon their own positions.

Friday, April 21; Saturday, April 22.
— On Saturday, Easter eve, another
movement was in preparation, but the
assaulting troops perceived in the
trenches were so vigorously cannonaded
by our batteries that it was necessary to
withdraw them to the rear.

On the left (west) bank of the Meuse
the enemy continued to show greater
activity; he did not abandon the hope of
forcing our front on Le Mort Homme,
and the increasing activity of our artil-
lery in the region of Avocourt might be
taken to indicate an attempt on that side.
But we did not leave the enemy at liberty
to move freely. A part of the trenches
carried by him on April 10 on Le Mort
Homme was retaken and, to the north of
the Caurettes Wood, we reoccupied a
trench.

These rectifications of our line were
fortunate; we made 150 prisoners.

The Germans responded by a violent
bombardment. Then, in the night of
Friday-Saturday, April 21-22, they at-
tacked the northern slopes of Le Mort
Homme; gaining an entry at one time
into our trenches, they were driven out
again. At the same time they sprayed
flaming liquids into our shelter to the
north of the Caurettes Wood, and
sketched an attack which was swiftly re-
pulsed.

Sunday, April 23. — The Germans re-
newed their efforts between Le Mort
Homme and the valley of Esnes, without
any greater success.

Monday, April 24. — After this check
the enemy resumed the bombardment of
Le Mort Homme, which led up, on the
afternoon of Easter Monday, April 24, to
new assaults. These were three times
repulsed.

AN AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE

Tuesday, April 25; Wednesday, April
26. — While continuing to act on the de-
fensive, we took measures to scatter
disturbance over the enemy's centres of
troop formation and supply. Our long-
range guns reached the communication
roads, while our airmen dropped bombs
on the cantonments and railway stations.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, April
27-29. — The physiognomy of the " siege
of Verdun " — as the Germans say, al-
though they have not even got near it,
threatening it only on a front of 14
miles, while on the remaining 30 miles
of the periphery no attack has taken
place — has continued unchanged. Or,
rather, it has been altered to the detri-
ment of the Germans themselves, who
have been pressed back on the narrow
sector of Le Mort Homme-Cumieres, the
object of their efforts.

It was on Saturday, April 29, that we
attacked the enemy positions to the
north of Le Mort Homme. Our soldiers
captured trenches and communicating
trenches on a front of 1,000 meters,
(1,094 yards,) and to a depth of 300 to
600 meters, (330 to 660 yards.)

Sunday, April 30. — The same success
crowned an attack to the north of
Cumieres.

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN

657

Monday, May 1. — The loss of these
trenches, the winning of which had cost
such tremendous efforts, led the Germans
to attempt, on May 1, ferocious attacks,
preceded by the usual bombardment. To
the north of Le Mort Homme two Ger-
man regiments, successively sent for-
ward, suffered enormous losses under our
fire. To the north of Cumieres the as-
sault was three times repeated and as
often broken.

Tuesday, May 2; Wednesday, May 3. —
On May 3, to the northwest of Le Mort
Homme, a brilliant assault allowed us to
carry new German positions and to take
a hundred prisoners.

On the right (east) bank of the Meuse
the enemy bombarded our positions al-
most incessantly, from the Poivre Ridge
to Vaux. A first attack on the slopes of
Vaux fort had been repulsed; a second,
between Haudromont farm and Thiau-
mont farm, was not allowed to develop,
the enemy, while still in his trenches,
having been subjected to a very accurate
artillery fire. Then the bombardment
was resumed, preceding a violent move-
ment against our trenches to the west of
the Thiaumont farm, in the direction of
the Nawe Wood. In spite of the use of
flaming liquids, the Germans were not
.able to force us from our shelters and,
as soon as they appeared, they were cut
down by our fire. An attack against
Douaumont and Vaux was no more suc-
cessful.

In this same sector, on May 1, we our-
selves took the offensive against the Ger-
man positions to the southeast of the
, Douaumont fort, a zone in which we held
the Caillette Wood and Vaux pond. Our
soldiers, launched against a German
trench, carried it on a front of 500
meters, (550 yards.)

More and more the events of the war
are concentrated around Verdun, the
enemy ceaselessly bringing new troops
to resume his attack.

INCREDIBLE SHELL FIRE

During the period May 4-10 his prin-
cipal effort was directed against the
French positions on the left (west) bank
of the Meuse, from Le Mort Homme to
304-Meter Hill. But the bombardment
which has progressively reached a

violence hitherto unknown, it is said, in
this series of battles in which artillery
has attained to a concentration of fire
never before believed possible — this bom-
bardment has been extended from Cumi-
eres as far as the wood of Avocourt, more
than 8 kilometers, (5 miles.) This fire
was at times interrupted or extended by
the enemy, to allow of assaults which
he carried out with growing fury, with-
out succeeding in forcing our positions;
hardly even obtaining slight successes,
which were as quickly neutralized by our
counterattacks. If the Germans have not
brought into action effectives comparable
to those of the closing days of February,
they have nevertheless sent forward great
masses, and have demanded from them
efforts and sacrifices proportionately
greater.

On May 2 and 3 we took the offensive,
not with the intention of pushing "back
the enemy, but in order to rectify our
lines. On May 2, while the Germans were
directing an intense artillery fire on the
Avocourt sector, our troops carried out
an assault on the German trenches to the
northwest of Le Mort Homme, that is,
against 265-Meter Hill. These trenches
were brilliantly carried by us, 100 prison-
ers and four machine guns falling into
our hands, while the Germans suffered
heavy losses from our shells. During the
whole night (May 3-4) our soldiers con-
tinued to; advance from one communicat-
ing trench to another, organizing the
ground as they went forward.

Thursday, May 4- — The enemy directed
an attack on these newly won trenches,
but it was immediately broken. In the
evening of May 4, after artillery prepara-
tion of extreme violence, 304-Meter Hill,
until then only bombarded, was assaulted
by strong German contingents; these
were repulsed, but our front trench was
invaded in some places. A German divis-
ion composed of fresh troops had made
the assaults; it suffered crushing losses.

Friday, May 5. — The enemy, after at-
tempting to repair this check, resumed
the bombardment more furiously than
ever. Large calibre and asphyxiating
shells fell in unheard-of numbers. The
whole region was torn up, and rendered
untenable; it became necessary to evac-

658 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

uate a part of the "trenches on the north
slope, facing Haucourt; but the waves
of assault were not able to organize them-
selves, our artillery covering with pro-
jectiles the ground on which the enemy
intended to form.

Saturday, May 6.— During the night of
May 5-6 the Germans attempted to carry
the small wood which, to the north and
northwest, covers the edge of the plateau
of 304-Meter Hill; a counterattack with
the bayonet was sufficient to push them
back within their lines.

The bombardment did not cease. It
was instead resumed with such fury that
officers who had taken part in the first
battles of Verdun said that they had
never seen such gun fire. The shell fire
was continued day and night.

ATTACK IN ESNES RAVINE

Sunday, May 7. — An attack was
begun, conducted by three divisions
constituted of fresh troops, who had
not yet taken part in the fighting
at Verdun; 304-Meter Hill seemed at
first directly threatened. But this was
only a feint. The main weight of the
attack was carried forward swiftly, in a
powerful effort along the bottom of the
valley of the Esnes rivulet, between this
hill and Le Mort Homme, which faces it.
Another assault was directed to the west,
near the road from Esnes to Haucourt.
On this front, which comprises four kilo-
meters, (2l/2 miles,) the attacking regi-
ments came forward like a waterspout,
believing that our resistance had been
broken by their gun fire. But our bat-
teries had been able to hold their ground ;
machine guns barred the way; several
times the German onrush crumbled before
our shells and rifle bullets. After suffer-
ing frightful losses the enemy was com-
pelled to retire; he had succeeded in get-
ting a foothold in a small communicating
trench at the bottom of the valley. All
night long the struggle continued, the
Germans arriving with fury before our
lines, where our fire mowed them down.

Monday, May 8. — In the morning a
counterattack completed our success; we
retook the communicating trench which
had been taken from us. However, the
bombardment continued against the
Avocourt Wood; during the day the

enemy attempted a new attack, this time
taking as their objective 287-Meter Hill,
a long ridge which descends toward Hau-
court, between the Forges stream, which
takes its rise at the west end of the hill,
and a dry ravine. The assailants were
not even able to reach our trenches; our
cannon and machine guns stopped them
as soon as they showed themselves.

The Germans were not sparing of their
assaults against 304-Meter Hill. During
the whole night of May 8-9 they rained
shells upon it.

Tuesday, May 9. — At 3 o'clock in the
morning the Germans attempted a new
surprise attack, which was equally fruit-
less, as was a second attempt during the
afternoon.

Wednesday, May 10. — Yet another at-
tack was made against the approaches of
287-Meter Hill; it was repulsed and left
a number of prisoners in cur hands.

On the right (east) bank of the Meuse,
from May 2 to May 6, there was only the
usual artillery duel ; this gained vigor on
the night of May 6-7, and grew to a
vigorous bombardment of our trenches
connecting the Haudromont Wood with
the approaches of Douaumont Fort. On
May 7 an infantry attack developed, car-
ried out by a division; the onrush was
such that on the west, that is to the
south of the Haudromont Wood, our first-
line trenches were entered on a front of
500 meters, (550 yards.) The enemy paid
very dearly for this success, which was,
besides, very short-lived, as, on the fol-
lowing night, a series of counterattacks
drove him out of most of the ground
gained. During the night of May 8-9 we
completed the recapture of these lines in
the neighborhood of Thiaumont farm.

On Wednesday, May 10, a small of-
fensive action carried out by our troops
on the western slopes of Le Morte Homme
allowed us to occupy enemy trench ele-
ments, and to capture two machine guns
and about 100 men.

Thursday, May 11; Friday, May 12. —
On Thursday, at Le Mort Homme, and on
Friday, to the southeast of Haucourt,
that is, toward 287-Meter Hill, we
widened our positions by local actions.

Saturday, May 13. — On their side, on
three occasions, on May 10, 12, and 13,

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN

659

the Germans tried to get close to our
lines; they failed at 287-Meter Hill and
on 304-Meter Hill.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, May 14-16.
— During the following days enemy action
was confined to bombardment, directed
particularly against 304-Meter Hill and
Avocourt Wood. On May 16 a German
attack in this direction was quickly
stopped; as was also an attack with
grenades against Le Mort Homme.

On the east bank of the Meuse several
attempts were made against our positions
between Haudromont Wood and the Vaux
Pond. On May 11, at 2 o'clock in the
morning, the Germans assaulted the
wooded zone situated, to the west of the
pond; our soldiers drove them back with
the bayonet and with grenades. On the
following day, May 12, after a prolonged
bombardment of all our lines on this
front, two successive attacks against our
trenches to the southeast of Douaumont
Fort were repulsed with serious loss to
the enemy. He returned to the charge
during the night, to the west of the
Thiaumont farm.

Wednesday, May 17. — The attack was
repeated in the morning ; our barrier fire
was sufficient to throw the enemy back,
and in this direction his effort was
ended.

On the ridges of the Meuse, to the
south of the Vaux region, besides the ar-
tillery struggle nothing was announced
except the check of a strong reconnois-
sance toward Les Eparges, and the suc-
cess of an attack by our troops against a
point, not precisely indicated, between
Les Eparges and St. Mihiel. It might
be supposed that the enemy was massing
troops in the plain, as our long-range
guns fired on enemy detachments to the
southeast of Thiaucourt.

Our airmen were also active. On the
night of May 16-17 our air squadrons
dropped bombs on several enemy bivou-*
acs at Damvillers and Wille-Devant-
Chaumont, to the north of Vaux; on the
railway station at Brieulles, whence the
military railway to Nantillois and Mont-
faucon branches off; and on the villages
of Nantillois and Romagnes-sous-Mont-
faucon.

Half a Million Men Fighting Like 'Madmen

in a Volcano '

By a French Staff Captain

With the beginning of the fourth
ifnonth of fighting at Verdun the dead-
lock changed to the most terrific pitched
battle in history. Fully half a million
men were engaged altogether, without a
respite from slaughter for several days.
Folloiuing are the impressions of an eye-
witness :

TTERDUN has become a battle of
y madmen in the midst of a volcano.
Whole regiments melt in a few
minutes, and others take their places only
to perish in the same way. Between Sat-
urday morning (May 20) and noon Tues-
day (May 23) we estimate that the Ger-
mans used up 100,000 men on the west
Meuse front alone. That is the price
they paid for the recapture of our recent
gains and the seizure of our outlying po-

sitions. The valley separating Le Mort
Homme from Hill 287 is choked with
bodies. A full brigade was mowed down
in a quarter hour's holocaust by our ma-
chine guns. Le Mort Homme itself
passed from our possession, but the cres-
cent Bourrus position to the south pre-
vents the enemy from utilizing it.

The scene there is appalling, but is
dwarfed in comparison with fighting
around Douaumont. West of the Meuse,
at least, one dies in the cpen air, but at
Douaumont is the horror of darkness,
where the men fight in tunnels, scream-
ing with the lust of butchery, deafened
by shells and grenades, stifled by smoke.

Even the wounded refuse to abandon
the struggle. As though possessed by
devils, they fight on until they fall sense-

660 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

less from loss of blood. A surgeon in a
front-line post told me that, in a redoubt
at the south part of the fort, of 200
French dead fully half had more than two
wounds. Those he was able to treat
seemed utterly insane. They kept shout-
ing war cries and their eyes blazed, and,
strangest of all, they appeared indiffer-
ent to pain. At one moment anesthetics
ran out owing to the impossibility of
bringing forward fresh supplies through
the bombardment. Arms, even legs, were
amputated without a groan, and even aft-
erward the men seemed not to have felt
the shock. They asked for a cigarette or
inquired how the battle was going.

Our losses in retaking the fort were
less heavy than was expected, as the
enemy was demoralized by the cannon-
ade— by far the most furious I have ever
seen from French guns — and also was
taken by surprise. But the subsequent
action took a terrible toll. Cover was all
blown to pieces. Every German rush was
preceded by two or three hours of hell-
storm, and then wave after wave of at-
tack in numbers that seemed unceasing.
Again and again the defenders' ranks
were renewed.

Never have attacks been pushed home
so continuously. The fight for Cemetery

Hill at Gettysburg was no child's play,
nor for Hougoumont at Waterloo, but
here men have been flung 5,000 at a time
at brief intervals for the last forty-eight
hours. Practically the whole sector has
been covered by a cannonade, compared
to which Gettysburg was a hailstorm and
Waterloo mere fireworks. Some shell
holes were thirty feet across, the explo-
sion killing fifty men simultaneously.

Before our lines the German dead lie
heaped in long £ows. I am told one ob-
server calculated there were 7,000 in a
distance of 700 yards. Besides they can-
not succor their wounded, whereas of
ours one at least in three is removed
safely to the rear. Despite the bombard-
ment supplies keep coming. Even the
chloroform I spoke of arrived after an
hour's delay when two sets of bearers
had been killed.

The dogged tenacity needed to continue
the resistance far surpasses the furious
elan of the attack. We know, too, the
Germans cannot long maintain their pres-
ent sacrifices. Since Saturday the enemy
has lost two, if not three, for each one of
us. Every bombardment withstood, every
rush checked brings nearer the moment
of inevitable exhaustion. Then will come
our recompense for these days of horror.

How the Battle of Verdun Began

By a Combatant

This article in the Paris Matin of May 10 created a stir, and other papers were for-
bidden to quote from it. The next day the French Government published an official denial
of its main point. The text of this denial appears at the end of the present translation.

" General Petain was able to save a par-
ticularly delicate situation."— Official citation
in the Order of the Day.

A CERTAIN number of facts are now
X~\. available to throw at least a little
light upon the beginnings of the
battle still raging at Verdun. There is,
for instance, the mention of General
Petain in the official dispatches, in which
it was stated that he " was able to save
a delicate situation." There is, besides,
the replacing of General Langle de Gary,
who commanded the central group of
armies (of which the Verdun army forms
a part) by this same General Petain.

Nor is the public ignorant of the fact
that General de Castelnau, in his ca-
pacity as Major General, [second to Jof-
fre,] hastened to the Meuse as soon as
the wide character of the German at-
tack became known, and took measures
on his personal initative which brought
about the French " restoration."

In what respect was the situation
" delicate "? What were the responsibili-
ties assumed in the circumstances? Cer-
tain details on these points have already
been ascertained; we wish to add some
new ones.

It will be remembered that the whole

HOW THE BATTLE OF VERDUN BEGAN

6G1

month of February had .been marked by
a series of local offensives made by the
Germans against the entire line of our
front from the sea to the Vosges — except
the Verdun sector. There was a manifest
tactical policy in this, intended to cause
us to make changes in the region where
the real attack was to be made, and to
hinder us from concentrating our re-
serves to stop it. The fact is that General
Petain's army, which our Commander in
Chief was reserving for the honor of this
-vital blow, was nowhere near Verdun,
and that it could not be conveyed there
until the battle had already been going
on several hours.

Nevertheless, several military leaders
had seen to it that the German strategy
did not circumvent them. For several
weeks they had been announcing that the
blow of the enemy would strike precisely
upon the banks of the Meuse, where no
action seemed to be contemplated. They
based their predictions upon very serious
information, according to which great
preparations had long been in progress
behind the German front in this sector,
whole divisions and even new army corps
being concentrated there, and a formid-
able quantity of heavy artillery and mu-
nitions accumulated.

Two currents of opinion then prevailed
in our General Staff. Some of the offi-
cers held that Verdun was going to be the
actual objective chosen by the Germans;
the others persisted in refusing to regard
that eventuality as probable. Our front,
which then ran to the top of the Caures
Woods, was held chiefly by territorial
and African troops. As General Herr,
who at that time commanded the whole
intrenched camp of Verdun and its out-
posts, called for reinforcements, the
Twentieth Corps, then resting in the
Mailly camp, was placed at his disposal,
but was not dispatched to the scene.

These were the conditions when the at-
tack of Feb. 21 took place. For thirty-
six hours the army did not realize all the
gravity of the case. It was only when
the folding back of our lines became ac-
centuated— we were fighting with three
divisions (60,000 men) against five army
corps (200,000 men) — and when we had
to rectify our front beyond Samogneux,

Beaumont, and Ornes that the situation
appeared in its true light. What was to
be done? It appeared impossible to op-
pose an adequate dike to the German
flood, because no such dike was ready,
and time was lacking to improvise it. It
must not be forgotten, either, that no
new railroad track had been laid in the
region of Verdun, and that — since the
Germans were at St. Mihiel — we pos-
sessed, in all and for all, only one single
railway to transport everything to our
stronghold. Besides, at the end of Feb-
ruary the Meuse was in flood, and the
crossing of bridges accessible to the heavy
projectiles of the enemy was becoming
precarious.

A decision, believed to be one of
prudence, was prepared — the evacuation
of the whole of the right bank of the
Meuse. The screen of troops fighting on
the first line had no other mission than
to resist while retreating and thus retard
the enemy as much as possible, in order
to permit the withdrawal of the rest of
our forces and, if possible, our supplies
to the other bank of the Meuse.

These orders had already been received
when General de Castelnau arrived at
Verdun. He saw, he judged, and, of his
own initiative, possessing as Major Gen-
eral the delegated powers of the General-
issimo, he decided to reverse the plan
that had been decreed, and to hold his
ground, cost what it might, against the
enemy on the plateau of Douaumont.
Thus Verdun would be saved. The task
offered immense difficulties, and General
Petain was commissioned to perform it.

The first act that had a decisive in-
fluence on subsequent events was the
utilization of automobile trucks for the
transport of troops and munitions. Four
thousand seven hundred trucks were
taken from the neighboring armies and
these, running day and night without in-
terruption, established between Bar-le-
Duc and Verdun the " endless pulley "
system that saved the day. It was by
grace of these trucks that the Twentieth
Army Corps, brought by railway from
Mailly to Bar-le-Duc, could be trans-
ferred in twelve hours from Bar-le-Duc
to the plateau of Douaumont. The trans-
fer was begun Feb. 24 at 7 o'clock in the

662 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

evening. The next morning at 10 that
army corps was taking part in the battle.
The same trucks in the days immediately
following assured the transport of the
whole army of General Petain, and,
throughout the two and a half months of
the battle thus far they have never ceased
to carry the provisions, the munitions,
the fresh troops, the returning wounded,
the evacuated battalions, and the units
relieved at the front.

But, though General de Castelnau had
taken it upon himself to modify the
orders first given, these orders had al-
ready begun to be executed at certain
points. The development of the battle of
Verdun in the last days cf February ap-
pears particularly confused because the
counterorders of General de Castelnau
could not reach all the units in time;
some of them acted on the original orders,
even after the whole general plan had
been changed. We cannot now, for rea-
sons easy to understand, reveal the re-
verses that resulted from this state of
things. * * *

This article called forth from the Min-
istry of the Interior the following com-
munique :

At no moment of the Verdun battle
has the high command given orders with

a view to the- retreat of the French
troops to the left bank of the Meuse.

On the contrary, from the morning
of Feb. 23, General Langle de Gary
instructed the troops of the right bank
that the occupation of every point, even
after it had been overrun, of every po-
sition even completely surrounded, must
be maintained at any price, and that
there must be only one order, " Hold on."

On the 24th, in the evening, the Gen-
eral in Chief gave the order to hold the
front between the Meuse and Woevre by
employing all means at the disposal of
the army. He also directed General de
Castelnau to Verdun.

The next morning, Feb. 25, while
on his way, General de Castelnau con-
firmed by telephone to General Herr that
in conformity with the orders of the Gen-
eral in Chief the positions of the right
bank of the Meuse ought to be held at
any cost.

Finally, on the evening of the same
day the General in Chief sent to General
Petain on his taking up his command
the following order : " I have ordered
yesterday, the 24th, that the right bank
of the Meuse to the north of Verdun be
held. Any commander who gives an
order to retreat will be brought before
a court-martial."

How Different Nationalities Act in Battle

As to the qualities and characteristics of the various non-Teutonic soldiers
of Europe, German army officers speak interestingly and not without generosity.
The French soldier is gallant, nervous, and very brave, only it is difficult to make
him return a second or third time into the same fire. The English fighter is
dogged and individually resourceful. The Italian, though ferocious in assault,
is discouraged by failure. He goes on one impulse and hates to repass his own
dead for a second charge. That is how a German sees three of his adversaries.
As to a fourth, he volunteers nothing, but if he is pressed, he will add : " The
Russian is terrible."

The meaning of that assertion develops slowly, with many hesitations. It is
not that the individual Russian soldier is particularly terrible. No, that is not
what he means to say. The Russian cannot be singularized. You have to think
of Russians, infinite in plurality, a slow-moving, ominous, imposing mass. They
come in lines ten and twelve deep, heedless and heavy, so controlled by their
own momentum that they cannot stop. They will go anywhere, into anything,
again and again, as if they did not know how to be afraid. " The only thing you
can do," says the German officer, " is to slaughter them and pray that you will
have ammunition enough to keep it up."

Why Verdun?

By Gabriel Hanotaux

Of the Paris Figaro and the French Academy
[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY]

THE obstinacy of the offensive at
Verdun gives increasing proof
each day of the importance which
the Germans attach to that enter-
prise. It is desirable that the French
soldier, the " soldier of Verdun," should
be informed fully of the causes of this
desperation, for thus he will be convinced
more deeply each day that he is fighting
not only for ground and the honor of
victory, but that he is defending, at the
price of his blood, the very life of his
native land.

Each minute of these long months and
each clod of that earth represents a unit
of our national existence. By each act,
by each moment of suffering, our soldiers
are preparing in advance the conditions
of an advantageous and liberating peace.
They are at this very moment the crea-
tors of the future. With cannon shots,
with rifle shots, with bayonet thrusts,
with grenade blows, they are destroying,
rag by rag, the " grand German plan."
The Kaiser has decided to risk his high-
est stakes upon this card; he has in-
trusted to his troops at Verdun the
supreme ambition of Germany. If this
attack fails, the whole Pan-Germanist
scheme crumbles and its body will soon
measure the earth. The monster will no
longer have any oth^r hope than that of
prolonging the phases of its death agony.
From the beginning of the war the Ger-
man plan has aimed principally at Ver-
dun. If the Crown Prince has been
placed at the head of the assailants, it is
because the decisive victory was reserved
for him. The movement in Belgium was
meant to turn the flank of the adversary,
but to conquer him the Germans counted
especially — in accordance with the prin-
ciples of the elder Moltke — upon the of-
fensive of the centre.

It is in harmony with the energy of the
German leaders to group their fighting

units and employ them in mass formation,
against the enemy, in order to break his
principal force. Now, the principal force
of the French Army from the beginning
has been in the east, and it is still that
frontier which popular instinct calls the
" iron frontier." Of that force Verdun
is the apex; it is the tooth penetrating
into the live flesh of the enemy. With-
out Verdun the German army advancing
on Paris could have no free communica-
tion with Germany. Without Verdun
there could be no sure protection for
Metz. Ever since the ancient treaty that
divided up the heritage of the sons of
Charlemagne, Verdun has been the point
around which all the history of France
and Germany has pivoted: Verdun is the
name that one finds again and again on
all the pages of our history.

Geographically Verdun presents two
incomparable advantages for the German
offensive. It commands the Valley of the
Meuse. As some one had said, Verdun is
the "hinge" between the eastern and
northern provinces. We have no other
way of liberating our country from Ger-
man servitude than to hold on until
death to this corner of earth; otherwise
there is no longer any line of communi-
cation between Lille and Nancy. To al-
low the line of the Meuse to be crushed
in would be to erase from our history the
battle of the Catalonian Fields, the battle
of Valmy, our eternal defense on the Ar-
gonne, and, finally, the battle of the
Marne, which is only a repetition of its
glorious predecessors.

This geographic interest is rounded
out, as we now know — thanks to the lumi-
nous writings of M. Engerand — by an
economic interest no less powerful and
no less agonizing. Germany cannot re-
main mistress of the world's metal in-
dustries unless she can keep and extend
her possessions of mineral ores in the

664 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

French province of Briey and the neigh-
boring regions. We have the statement
of the German metal workers that Ger-
many could not continue the present war
if she no longer controlled the iron ore of
Lorraine, technically known as minette.
We have a statement from German ex-
perts declaring that so long as these
mines are under the cannon of Verdun
the economic and military destiny of Ger-
many remains precarious and exposed to
French domination. We are in a posi-
tion to affirm that one of the chief reasons
for the war has been the desire to con-
quer the Briey basin and seize the stra-
tegical key of that immense wealth — in a
word, Verdun !

If the French soldier knows all this he
will understand why he is fighting, and
why, in defending that ground, he is de-
fending both the heart and the breast-
plate of his fatherland.

Strategically the reiterated determina-
tion of the Germans to conquer at this
point in order to obtain " their " victory
may be gathered also from their own
avowals. In the first part of the war
the plan was to capture Verdun, and it
was because Verdun did not fall that the
German Army had to substitute the war
of trenches for the war of manoeuvres.
We can believe their own statements on
this subject. One of their historians
(Gottlob Egelhaaf) wrote:

" If the Crown Princes of Bavaria and
Prussia had been in a position to take
Verdun in August-September, 1914, and
thus to pierce the line of the Meuse, the
German armies would have broken
through to Paris in a single movement.
But the Princes remained nailed at Ver-
dun * * and so the supreme com-
mander had to decide to withdraw the
right wing of the German Army. The
Germans retired, then, from the Marne
as far back as the Aisne. Because

Verdun could not be taken, it appeared
necessary to change the plan of the war."

Is it clear? Do we need any higher or
more striking proof? If so, who does not
recall the telegram addressed by the
Kaiser to the Landtag of Brandenburg,
in which he celebrated the taking of Ver-
dun, which he believed to be an accom-
plished fact:

" I rejoice greatly in the new and
grand examples of Brandenburg vigor
and fidelity even unto death which the
sons of that province have furnished in
the last few days, in the course of their
irresistible assault upon the powerful
fortress of our chief enemy."

He really thought — and it was repeated
a hundred times after him in Germany—
that the taking of Verdun was the end of
the war, a decisive German victory. And
that is why the desperate resistance of
our soldiers, " the French victory of
Verdun," has been and will be for him
and his followers the supreme disillusion-
ment.

This is why our magnificent corps of
Generals, and our army, now responding
so nobly to their appeals, realize that at
Verdun, as on the Marne, we must con-
quer or perish. General Joffre gave us
the key to these unanimous sentiments
when he made known his telegram, sent
at the time of his famous order of the
day on the Marne:

" The evening of the same day, the
25th, the Commander in Chief sent to
General Petain, then taking command,
the following order: 'Yesterday, the
24th, I gave orders to hold the right bank
of the Meuse, north of Verdun. Any
commander who shall give an order to
retreat will be court-martialed/ "

Compare the two telegrams, that of
the Emperor and that of the General, and
you can judge which is the hand that is
engraving history.

The Iron Key to War and Peace

By Henri Berenger

Member of the French Senate

Further data on the crucial value of
the French iron mines seized by Germany
are furnished by Senator Berenger in Le
Matin :

rpHERE is no reason to be astonished
J_ that Germany, from the very begin-
ning of the war, has sought to main-
tain possession of the Basin of Briey,
which represented 90 per cent, of our
iron production, and that the attack on
Verdun has been for the purpose of con-
firming and perpetuating this possession.

To understand all the tragedy of our
problem it is necessary to know that it is
precisely the Basin of Briey which is the
battlefield for the sovereignty of iron be-
tween Germany and France. The Basin
of Briey lies between Verdun and Metz,
like a gigantic key of the war, thrown at
equal distance from these two fortresses
of the Lorraine frontier.

From this fact may not one perceive
the interest which the Germans have in
taking Verdun — an interest equal to that
which we should have in retaking Metz?

Certain reliable figures, collected before
the war and since the war began, will
impart to all Frenchmen the truth.

Before the war Germany produced an-
nually 28,000,000 tons of iron, of which
21,000,000 tons came from that part of
the Basin of Briey which had been an-
nexed to Germany since 1870-71.

France produced annually 22,000,000
tons of iron, of which 15,000,000 tons
came from the part of the Basin of Briey
which had remained French.

Since the war began France, having
lost the Basin of Briey through invasion,
has been almost exclusively furnished
with iron from England and America.

Germany, on the contrary, having oc-
cupied at the same time the. Basin of
Briey in France and in Luxemburg, has
put in operation nearly all the great fur-
naces there and thus adds to her- 28,000,-
000 tons, before the war, the 15,000,000
tons of our basin and the 6,000,000 of

the Basin of Luxemburg — that is 28 plus
15 plus 6, making 49,000,000 tons of iron
for herself and her allies.

If we recall that in Germany, thanks
to the Rhenish foundries, 100 tons of pig
iron produce 92 tons of steel, Germany
has at her disposition about 45,000,000
tons of steel for military and naval ap-
pliances of all sorts.

Far from having realized against Ger-
many the essential brockage, which would
be the brockage of the iron, the prime
material in this war, we have, on the
contrary, left her in possession of 90 per
cent, of our French production of iron
and of 80 per cent, of the national pro-
duction of steel we had before the war.

The artless proof of what I set forth
here has been for some time furnished
by German documents which the Comite
des Forges de France [Committee of the
Foundries of France] has published in
its circulars Nos. 655, 666, and 3,287.

Here, notably, is what one may read
since May 20, 1915 — just a year ago — in
the " Confidential Memorandum on the
Conditions of Future Peace " which was
addressed to von Bethmann Hollweg,
Chancellor of the Empire, by the six
great industrial and agricultural associa-
tions of Germany:

If the production of pig- iron and steel had
not been doubled since August, 1914, the con-
tinuation of the war would have been impos-
sible. At present the mineral of Briey fur-
nishes from 60 to 80 per cent, of the appli-
ances made from iron and steel. If this pro-
duction be disturbed the war will be practi-
cally lost.

Once masters of Verdun the Ger-
mans will be able to believe themselves
masters of the indefinite continuation of
the war, because the Basin of Briey in-
closes in the totality of its subsoil more
than 3,000,000,000 tons of iron.

On the other hand, if we remain mas-
ters of Verdun and again, by our armies,
become masters of Metz, we shall, by the
same stroke, put an end to the war, be-
cause we shall have taken from Germany

666 CURRENT HISTORY : A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

21 plus 15 plus 6, amounting to 42,000,000
tons of iron of the 49,000,000 tons which
the empire contains — that is to say, nine-

tenths of her total production of steel,
the entire key to her production of war
material.

Germany and the Lorraine Iron Mines

By Otto Hue

Socialist Member of the Reichstag

Confirmation of the statement that Ger-
many would not have steel enough to con-
tinue the war if it were to lose control of
the rich mines east of Verdun is fur-
nished by the folloiving extract from an
article in the Metallarbeiter-Zeitung, the
weekly organ of the German Metal Work-
ers' Union:

IN Alsace-Lorraine a great ore mining
and iron and steel making industry
has developed in a period of time so
brief as to remind us of conditions in the
United States. In 1872 only twenty min-
ing concessions were granted, the ore out-
put amounted to only 990,000 tons, and
the pig iron production to but 220,000
tons. In 1878-79 along came the process
for the extraction of phosphorus, named
after its inventors, Thomas and Gilchrist,
and already in 1882 there were 230 min-
ing concessions granted in Alsace-Lor-
raine, and the production of ore soon
reached 2,000,000 tons, although the work
of smelting at the point of production
developed more slowly, because the con-
struction of big smelting plants required
more time and money than that necessary
for the opening of the mines, the greater
part of which was then close to the sur-
face.

It is sufficiently well known that the
Thomas-Gilchrist process raised the
Lorraine-Luxemburg iron ore, (minette,)
which contained too much phosphorus for
the older Bessemer process, to the rank
of a most profitable ore with one blow.
This is the base for a development of
the mining, iron, and steel industry in
Alsace-Lorraine unparalleled in Europe.
The production of minette ore jumped
from 2,150,000 tons in 1885 to 21,130,000
tons in 1913. Of the round 19,000,000
tons of pig iron smelted within the limits
of the German Tariff Union (Germany

and Luxemburg) in 1913 some 33 per
cent, came from Lorraine and Luxem-
burg. The outbreak of the war inter-
rupted the increased use of the big new
smelters in the imperial territories — '
Hagendingen, for example. The balance
of our production of pig iron and crude
steel began to swing more toward the
southwest corner of Germany.

Of the production of iron ore within
the district covered by the tariff union
in 1913, which amounted to almost 36,-
000,000 tons, 21,100,000 came from Lor-
raine and 7,300,000 from Luxemburg.
Therefore the minette district alone pro-
duces 80 per cent, of our domestic output
of iron ore. It is true that we exported
2,610,000 tons of iron ore in 1913, near-
ly all of which went to Belgium and
France, but we imported 3,800,000 tons
(principally minette) from there in ex-
change, especially because the mixing of
French with German minette makes a
better smelting combination. Further-
more, we received 4,550,000 tons of iron
ore from Sweden and 3,630,000 tons from
Spain, besides smaller quantities from
Russia, Algeria, Tunis, Norway, &c.

In the main, however, these ores, which
are generally richer and consequently
cost more to extract, go to a few of the big
smelters of the Lower Rhine and West-
phalia that assured themselves of favor-
able conditions through long-term con-
tracts, as with Sweden, for instance. Of
the 34,000,000 tons of iron ore worked up
in German smelters and foundries in
1913 some 23,250,000 tons came from the
interior of the empire, and as of that
only about 7,000,000 tons were produced
outside of Alsace-Lorraine, a simple cal-
culation shows that already in 1913 some
70 per cent, of the German iron ore used
came from Lorraine.

German War Losses the Greatest in

History

GENERAL JACOB EUGENE DUR-
YEE, a veteran of the Ameri-
can civil war, has prepared a
study which shows that the Ger-
man casualties in the present war exceed
the war losses in Europe and America
for the entire eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.

His study shows that in the battles of
the eighteenth century there was a total
of 1,865,700 men engaged, of whom 316,-
450 were killed or wounded; in the bat-
tles of the nineteenth century there were
7,315,912 men engaged and 1,088,641
killed or wounded, making a total for
both centuries of 9,181,612 men, with
casualties of 1,405,091. He quotes the
British official estimate of German losses,
published in THE NEW YORK TIMES of
May 11, showing casualties of 2,822,079,
concluding that in the twenty-one months
since August, 1914, the Germans have
lost 1,084,000 more men than were lost
by all the nations of Europe and America
in the battles of the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries.

In none of the battles General Duryee
takes into consideration were there less
than 75,000 men engaged, the lowest on
the list being the battle of Orthez, in
1814, with 77,000 men engaged. The
greatest number in any battle, exclusive
of the present war, was at Leipsic in
1813, when 440,000 men fought. In the
four great battles of the nineteenth cen-
tury— Leipsic, Wagram, Borodino, and
Bantzen — there were all together 1,373,-
000 men engaged. In the eighteenth
century there was only one battle fought
in which there were as many as 200,000
fighters, the battle of Malplaquet, in 1709.
In comparison with the many battles
in the present war, in which many hun-
dreds of thousands face each other, Gen-
eral Duryee shows that of the fifteen
great battles of the civil war in none
were as many as 200,000 engaged. The
battle of Fredericksburg in 1862 with

190,000 men and the battle of Chancel-
lorsville with 192,000 in 1863 were the
largest in the number of men engaged.
The losses in these battles, however, were
smaller than in others in which fewer
men were engaged, notably Gettysburg,
Chickamauga, Spottsylvania, and the
Wilderness. The bloodiest battle fought
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
was Leipsic, when 92,000 were killed or
wounded of the 440,000 engaged. The
greatest battle on this continent was Get-
tysburg, where 37,000 were killed and
wounded of 163,000 engaged. The blood-
iest battle was Chickamauga, where 35,-
100 of the 128,000 engaged were killed or
wounded.

General Duryee gives a list of the six-
teen great battles of the eighteenth cent-
ury, as follows :

Name and Date.
Blenheim, 1704
Ramilies, 1700

Men
Engaged.
, . 110,000
122 000

Killed and
Wounded.
31,000
11 600

Oudenard, 1708
Malplaquet, 1709 ....

. . 170,000
. . 200,000

20,000
34 000

Dettingen, 1743
Fontenoy, 1745
Prague 1757

97,000
, . 90,000
l°i 000

9,350
13,000
22 000

Kollin 1757 .

87 000

19 000

Leuthen, 1757
Breslau 1757

, . 111,000
110 000

10,000
11 700

Zorndorf, 1758.
Hochkirch, 175S

. 84,700
. 132,000

32,000
14,000

Zullchau, 1759
Torgau 17GO

. 113,000
100 000

31,000
24 000

Castiglione, 179G ....

. . 90,000

17,000

Total 1,752,700 305,050

General Duryee lists the following as
the great battles of the nineteenth cent-
ury, many of which seem skirmishes v/hen
compared with the great struggles now
going on in Europe :

Men Killed and

Name and Date. Engaged. Wounded.

Hohenlinden, 1800 100,000 14,500

Austerlitz, 1805 148,000 25,000

Jena, 1800 98,000 17,000

Eylau, 1807 133,500 42,000

Heilsburg, 1807 169,000 22,000

Friedland, 1807 142,000 34,000

Eckmeihl, 1809 145,000 15,000

Aspern, 1809 170,000 45,000

668 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Men
Name and Date. Engaged.

Wagram, 1809 370,000

Talavera, 1809 109,000

Salamanca, 1812 91,000

Borodino, 1812 263,000

Baptzen, 1813 300,000

Vittoria, 1813 143,000

Leipsic, 1813 440,000

Orthez, 1814 77,000

Le Rothiere, 1814 120,000

Laon, 1814 112,000

Ligny, 1815 159,000

Toulouse, 1814 90,000

Waterloo, 1815 170,000

Alma, 1854 86,000

Inkerman, 1854...- 83,700

Magenta, 1859 108,000

Solferino, 1859 295,000

Shiloh, 1862 98,000

Seven Pines, 1862 90,000

Gaines Mills, 1862 90,000

Malvern Hill, 1862 150,000

Second Manassas, 1862 127,000

Antietam, 1862 128,000

Fredericksburg, 1862.. 190,000

Chickamauga, 1863... 128,000

Chancellorsville, 1803. 192,000

Gettysburg, 1863....... 163,000

Chattanooga, 1863 99,000

Stone River, 1863 80,712

Spottsylvania, 1864... 150,000

Cold Harbor, 1864 168,000

Wilderness, 1864 179,000

Koenigratz, 1866 417,000

Worth, 1870 135,000

Vionville, 1870 168,000

Gravelotte, 1870 320,000

Plevna, 1877 115,000

Total . ...7,315,912

Killed and

Wounded.

44,000

15,500

15,000

75,000

24,000

10,000

92,000

6,050

12,500

9,000

24,000

10,550

42,000

9,100

13,787

11,000

31,500

21,000

11,165

13,000

8,300

22,000

23,582

16,971

35,100

24,000

37,000

8,500

18,500

25,000

11,700

26,000

26,894

18,642

32,800

30,000

19,000

1,088,641

General Duryee gives the following list
of German casualties as taken from offi-
cial British compilations reported in THE
NEW YORK TIMES:

Losses of German Empire up to May
1, 1915: Killed or died of wounds, 664,-
552; missing, 197,094; severely wound-
ed, 385,515; wounded, 254,627; slightly
wounded, 1,023,212; total, 2,525,000. This
does not include prisoners, those who died
of sickness, or those wounded who re-
mained with units, the grand total being
2,822,079.

LATER BRITISH ESTIMATE
According to a British official tabula-
tion of the German casualty lists, Ger-
many had lost 2,924,586 soldiers up to
the end of May, of which 734,412 were
killed. This does not include losses in
naval engagements or in the colonies.
The German figures for the month of
May alone, as compiled by the British
authorities, were 22,471 dead, 72,075
wounded, and 7,961 prisoners and miss-
ing, making a total of 102,507. The
ing, making a total of 102,507.

The grand totals as indicated above
are:

Dead

Wounded

Prisoners and missing.

, 734,412

1,851,652
, 338,522

Total 2,924,586

A Comparison That Shows the Huge Cost of the War

Edmond Thery, a French economist, has compiled statistics showing that the
present belligerents have already spent 'more than twice as much as the total
cost of all the preceding wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He
says in substance :

The fifteen years of war waged by Napoleon increased the public debt of
France by 588,000,000 francs, while the Crimean war alone cost the republic
1,660,000,000. Great Britain spent 1,550,000,000 in the Crimean, while that war
cost Austria 343,000,000, and Turkey and Sardinia together 642,000,000 francs.
France spent 650,000,000 francs on the Mexican war, and 853,000,000 in the con-
flict against Austria for the liberation of Italy.

Prussia in her wars against Denmark and Austria spent about 2,000,000,000
francs, while the German States and France together spent about 15,000,000,000
on the war of 1870, including 5,000,000,000 francs indemnity paid by France to
Germany. The war of 1877-78 against Turkey cost Russia about 2,700,000,000
francs, while she spent 6,300,000,000 in the war with Japan, as against 4,500,-
000,000 spent by Japan.

The total from the beginning of 1801 up to August, 1914, amounts to about
65,000,000,000 francs, or less than one-half of what the belligerent powers have
already expended on the present conflict.

Creating the British Army

Story of Lord Kitchener's Achievements Leading Up to

Military Compulsion

[Condensed for CURRENT HISTORY from an article by J. B. Firth in The London Telegraph,
published a short time before Kitchener's death]

THE Military Service bill will mark
the definite commencement of a
new era for the British Army.
Military necessity has driven Great
Britain to conform to the Continental
model, because she was required to raise
armies on a Continental scale. Having
raised them, she must maintain them.
Voluntaryism sufficed for the former;
after a gallant effort it has proved un-
equal to the latter duty.

Lord Kitchener is to be congratulated
most heartily upon a wonderful achieve-
ment. These armies are of his raising.
He must have passed through some very
anxious months during the several
phases of the recruiting problem. But
he has always presented to the public a
calm and imperturbable front. From
the outset Lord Kitchener showed a sound
prescience of the magnitude and dura-
tion of the struggle, and the best monu-
ment of his tenure of the Secretaryship
of State for War is the size and quality
of the British Army of today.

When the news came of the definite
failure of the original French offensive,
which necessitated the perilous retreat
of the British Army from Mons, all idea
must have vanished of limiting the Brit-
ish military contribution to the mainte-
nance of 160,000 men in France. Great
Britain had to throw all in that she pos-
sibly could, and to do so she must raise
armies as never before in her long his-
tory. There was only one man who
could do it. There was only one man
whom the country would have trusted to
do it. That was Lord Kitchener. The
nation called him to the War Office. He
went there on Aug. 6, and the very next
day Parliament sanctioned the addition
of 500,000 men to the regular establish-
ment, and Lord Kitchener issued his first
appeal for 100,000 recruits. There was

a magic in the name of Lord Kitchener
all through that wonderful Autumn of
1914. He had the complete confidence of
the Government and the unquestioning
obedience.of the entire people. If at any
moment down to the battle of the Marne,
when the tide of retreat was stayed and
the Germans were thrown back to the
Aisne, Lord Kitchener had appealed to
the country to accept compulsory service,
there are those who think that it would
have been accepted without serious
demur.

Lord Kitchener made his first state-
ment on the army in the House of Lords
on Aug. 25, 1914, saying incidentally:

While India, Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand are all sending us powerful contin-
gents, the territorials are replying- with loy-
alty to the stern call of duty which has come
to them with such exceptional force. Sixty-
nine battalions have, with fine patriotism,
already volunteered for service abroad, and
when trained and organized in the larger
formations will be able to take their places
in the line. The 100,000 recruits for which,
in the first place, it has been thought neces-
sary to call have already been practically se-
cured. * * * The empires with which we are
at war have called to their colors almost their
entire male population. The principle we on
our part shall observe is this, that while their
maximum force undergoes a constant dimi-
nution, the reinforcements we prepare shall
steadily and increasingly flow out until we
have an army in the field which in numbers,
not less than in quality, will not be unworthy
of the power and responsibilities of the Brit-
ish Empire.

It would be much too long a story to
describe in detail the ebbs and flows of
the tide of recruiting:

Aug. 28.— Another 100,000 called for. The
age limit raised to 35.

Sept. 10.— The Prime Minister asked the
House of Commons to sanction the raising of
a second half million, and said that 439,000
had already joined, not counting territorials.
On one day alone, Sept. 3, no fewer than
33,204 recruits came in.

Sept. 11.— The response was still so good
that the height was raised to 5 feet 6 inches.

670 CURRENT HISTORY : A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Sept. 15.— It was announced that 501,580 re-
cruits had been obtained— from England, 396,-
751; from Scotland, 64,444; from Ireland, 20,-
419, and from Wales, 19,966.

A most unfortunate impression was
created that the military authorities were
getting not only more men than they
could at once equip — that was obvious —
but more than they actually required.
The result was a sharp drop, and at the
end of October it was necessary to reduce
the minimum height to 5 feet 4 inches
and raise the age to 38. All through the
Winter the situation remained much the
same. Officially, satisfaction was ex-
pressed; privately it became known that
Ministers were growing rather anxious.
People began to discuss seriously whether
compulsion would not be found necessary.
A bombardment of an east coast watering
place, a Zeppelin raid, a heavy casualty
list, a particularly frightful example of
German frightfulness might cause the
tide to flow with greater vigor for a time,
but the great wave of enthusiasm which,
in a marvelously short time, had raised
one service battalion after another for all
the more famous regiments had largely
spent itself. When on May 18, 1915,
Lord Kitchener appealed for yet another
300,000, the age limit was raised to 40,
and the minimum height reduced to 5 feet
2 inches.

By this time the nation had begun to
realize the serious economic results which
flowed from the heroic efforts made to
repair our military unpreparedness.
Money had been poured out like water.
For the equipment of the new armies — or
Kitchener's army, as it was popularly
called — everything was lacking, and
everything had to be found in a hurry.
Manufacturers, not merely in this coun-
try, but in all parts of the world — espe-
cially the United States — were deluged
with orders for supplies of every conceiv-
able sort. And as the manufacturing dis-
tricts of France were also largely in the
hands of the enemy, our ally, too, re-
quired to be provided with vast quantities
of raw material. So, too, with Russia,
Serbia, and later on with Italy. The
British fleet kept the seas open, and
Great Britain became more and more the
workshop of the Allies at the very mo-

ment when her main industries were cry-
ing out for labor to replace the men who
had left their trades to join the colors.
Voluntaryism is a magnificent ideal, and
it was voluntaryism which filled the
ranks of Kitchener's army and replen-
ished the territorial battalions. Prob-
ably there was not a single expert at the
War Office who had ever supposed before
the war that pure voluntaryism could
raise, say, two million men, or that with-
out a measure of direct general compul-
sion nearly four million men would an-
swer the call. But that a very heavy
price had to be paid for the recruitment
of thousands of skilled men, who could
best have served their country by remain-
ing at work, only began to be realized in
the Spring of 1915.

It began to be whispered that the army
was short of ammunition. Then rumor
took more definite shape, and the short-
age was declared to be most serious in
high-explosive shells. But this may be
said, that even at that time the whole of
the available resources had been laid un-
der contribution, and gigantic orders had
been given. It was the deliveries "which
were woefully behindhand. The Liberal
Government fell; the Coalition was
formed, and its first act, after the estab-
lishment of a new Ministry of Munitions
under Mr. Lloyd George, was to introduce
and pass a National Registration bill,
with its pink forms for men of military
age, which was regarded as the first ten-
tative— but unavowed — commitment in
the direction of compulsion. " Steps will
be taken," said Lord Kitchener, " to ap-
proach with a view to enlistment all pos-
sible candidates for the army, unmarried
men to be preferred before married men,
as far as may be." The recruiting prob-
lem had become very serious, though even
as late as July 28 Mr. Asquith said that
" recruiting was highly satisfactory," and
in August the Government appointed a
committee, presided over by Lord Lans-
downe, to consider the best means of
making use of the National Register. Its
utility had been somewhat compromised
by the large number of trades which had
been placed on the starred list. On Sept.
15 it was stated that the total number of
men who were serving or had served in

CREATING THE BRITISH ARMY

671

the army and navy was " not far short of
three millions," and Mr. Asquith spoke of
recruiting having been at a fairly steady
figure for thirteen months. But on the
same day Lord Kitchener in the House of
Lords acknowledged that the Govern-
ment's " anxious thought had been ac-
centuated and rendered more pressing by
the recent falling off in numbers." This
was the first clear official intimation
that the state of recruiting was bad. A
series of recruiting rallies throughout the
country was attempted, but with most
disappointing results, and the appoint-
ment of Lord Derby as Director General
of Recruiting on Oct. 6 was in itself a
confession that the old methods had
yielded their full results, and could yield
no more.

The shadow of compulsion was by this
time plainly visible. It was no secret
that the question had been raised in the
Cabinet or that Ministers were sharply
divided. Mr. Lloyd George had openly
proclaimed himself a convert to compul-
sion. The Labor Recruiting Committee,
while still resolutely opposed to compul-
sion, issued a striking manifesto declar-
ing their conviction that 30,000 recruits
a week were required to maintain at full
strength the armies in the field, and call-
ing on trade unionists to rally to and save
the voluntary system. Their effort, how-
ever, was soon merged in the scheme put
forward by Lord Derby, to which com-
pulsionists and anti-compulsionists alike
agreed to give a fair and honest trial.
The two main features of the scheme
were ' ( 1 ) the differentiation between,
single and married, and (2) the classifi-
cation of recruits in groups according to
their age. After a fairly promising
opening the campaign suddenly fell flat.
It was only saved from utter failure by
the now famous pledge of the Prime Min-
ister that the attested mairied men
should not be called up if any consider-
able number of single men refrained from
offering themselves, until other means
had been taken to bring these single men
into service. Even so, it was not until
the last few days before the time ap-
pointed for closing the lists that the great
rush came^-wkeji: in four days — Dec. 10
to 13— n<rf@ieJ?WVn 1,070,478 presented

themselves for attestation. The follow-
ing results are taken from Lord Derby's
report :

Grand total of men of military age.. 5,011,441
Attested, enlisted, and rejected 2,829,263

Total remaining 2,182,178

Single men attested 840,000

Of these were starred 312,067

Unstarred attested 527,933

Reduced by deductions to 343,386

Married men attested 1,344,979

Of these were starred 449,808

Unstarred attested 895,171

Reduced by deductions to 487,676

Unstarred single men unaccounted

for 651,160

Immediate enlistments 275,031

Attestations, total 2,246,630

Grand total 2,521,661

It was admitted that the figure of
651,160 unstarred single men unaccount-
ed for could not be declared a negligible
figure, and the Prime Minister's pledge,
therefore, became operative, and called
for a measure of compulsion to bring in
the unattested single men. In order to
emphasize the need of men to repair the
wastage of war, the following table of
British losses, sustained down to Dec. 9,
1915, was published about this time:
FLANDERS AND FRANCE

Killed. W'nd'd. Miss. Total.

Officers 4,829 9,943 1,699 16,471

N.C.O.'s & men.. 77,473 241,359 52,685 371,571

Total 387,988

DARDANELLES

Officers 1,667 3,028 350 5,045

N.C.O.'s & men.. 24,535 72,781 12,194 109,510

Total 114,555

OTHER THEATRES OF WAR

Officers 871 694 100 1,665

N.C.O.'s &men.. 10,548 10,953 2,518 24,019

Total 25,684

Total 119,923 338,758 69,546 528,227

The passing of the Military Service bill
provoked a serious crisis in the Parlia-
mentary Labor Party, and also in the
labor world outside. The small Indepen-
dent Labor Party was stubbornly opposed
to compulsion, and received the support
of a number of other labor members.
Special labor congresses were called to
discuss the whole position as created by

672 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the new bill, and at each there was a
large adverse majority against the meas-
ure. But in the last critical division the
conference determined by a narrow ma-
jority not to carry its protest to the point
of actual resistance, and the upshot of
the matter was that the three Labor
Ministers remained in the Coalition Gov-
ernment. The January measure of com-
pulsion was expressly limited to the ful-
fillment of the Prime Minister's pledge.
It only applied to the unattested single
men of military age. Meanwhile, the
groups of the attested single men were
yielding such exceedingly meagre results
that one proclamation speedily followed
another, till all the single groups had
been warned of their approaching call.
And then, to the extreme surprise of the
attested married men, a proclamation was
issued warning the early groups of the
date on which they would be required.
This was before the process of compul-
sion had actually been applied to the un-
attested single men, and a strong agita-
tion at once sprang up among those who
complained that the pledge had not been
kept in the spirit. Undoubtedly they had
a genuine grievance to the extent that
they were called up considerably earlier
than they had been led to expect, but this
was due, as Lord Kitchener frankly ad-
mitted, to military necessity, and also to
the too generous classifications of re-
served occupations.

Meanwhile the shortage in the battal-
ions at the front threatened to grow more
serious. The military authorities again
began to press upon the Government the
urgent necessity of making immediate
provision for the near future. There-
upon the old divisions of opinion mani-
fested themselves anew, and after some
weeks of delay Mr. Asquith startled the
House of Commons just before the Easter
adjournment by announcing that, if the
differences could not be rdjusted, there
was a danger of a break up of the Cabi-
net, which all agreed would be a "na-
tional disaster." But at their very next
meeting the Cabinet agreed upon a com-
promise, and it was arranged that Parlia-
ment should sit in secret session, at which

the confidential memoranda and figures
which the Cabinet had been considering
should be laid before the two houses.
This was done, and with eminently satis-
factory results, for it reconciled the vast -
majority of the House of Commons to the
necessity of accepting a scheme of imme-
diate and general compulsion. All males
between the ages of 18 and 41 "are now
subject to military service. All distinc-
tion between married and single is swept
away, and the special financial obliga-
tions of the married recruits are to be
met, as far as possible, by reasonable and
adequate grants from the public purse.

The new Military Service act is de-
signed to make sure that in the supreme
crisis of this war there shall be no lack
of men. It is said that a single fresh di-
vision thrown in at the end of the first
battle of Ypres on either side would have
won a decisive victory. All through this
war Great Britain has been handicapped
by an insufficient number of trained di-
visions. It is the purpose of the Govern-
ment and of the War Office to make
sure that there shall at least be enough
at the close.

Much might have been said of the mill-
ion-sided activities which have accompa-
nied the growth of the British Army — of
the wonderful recruiting fervor of the
Autumn of 1914; of the incredible labors
required to equip such masses of men ; of
the establishment of the new arsenals; of
the conversion of practically the whole
engineering capacity of the country to
the task of producing guns and munitions
of war; of the magnificently "loyal part
which labor on the whole has played; of
the courage and devotion shown by the
women of Great Britain in the hour of
need. All have contributed their essen-
tial aid toward building up the new Brit-
ish Army.

It is a jreat achievement. If there is
one man more than another who has kept
cool and collected through all these anx-
ious months, and in spite of all difficul-
ties has gone on building up the splendid
fabric whose foundations he laid with
such foresight, it is Lord Kitchener. He
has wrought wonders.

German Idealism

WRITTEN FOR CURRENT HISTORY

By Benjamin Meade Bolton

HERETOFORE when nations have
been aroused as the Germans
are today they have usually
followed the leadership of some
dominant personality who appeared to
them to be the embodiment of their hopes
and ambitions. The great wars of the
past are even called by the names of the
great Generals who led them. But the
present conflict will scarcely go down in
history as the war of any one man, for
every one is now convinced that this is
no Kaiser's war, as was sometimes
claimed in the beginning of the conflict,
but a people's war as far as the German
Nation is concerned. Whether the war
has been fomented by the Kaiser, fhe
junkers, and the munition manufacturers
or no, there can be no doubt but it now
is an expression of the martial spirit of
the folk.

The Germans believe, at anyrate, that
the war is for an ideal, and this ideal has
not been exemplified to them by any one
individual. It has developed and crystal-
lized out of the teachings of many minds,
past and present. This idealism has be-
come a dominant passion; it has needed
no one great teacher to spread it as the
different cults have been spread. It has
acted as an all-pervading ether, infusing
itself throughout the whole people.

The Germans also believe that this
idealism has placed Germany today in
the front rank of civilization, and that to
it is due all her wonderful progress and
development, intellectual and material. It
has led them with one accord to enter
upon a conflict with the rest of mankind
to force upon an unwilling world their
conception of what is best for the destiny
of the race. They have come to believe
that they represent, as a nation, the
highest attainment in intellect, in morals,

and in material and artistic things to
which man has ever reached, and some
even believe that, unretarded, this ideal-
ism will lead to man's domination of
heaven itself, as is shown by a quotation
from Schelling given below.

The leaders of German thought have
long been teaching man's superiority to
his environment. That, although he is, a
product of nature, he is, nevertheless,
capable of becoming immeasurably higher
than his origin, and that by his devotion
to duty and by the full exercise of his
energies he has it in his power to shape
the progress of the world.

This idealism, which has been fraught
with such tremendous consequences, has
been recently stated by Professor
Francke as " Unconditional submission
to duty, salvation through ceaseless striv-
ing of wilf, the moral mission of aesthetic
culture." To these Professor John
Dewey adds, " an Ideal, a Mission, a Des-
tiny." Professor Dewey also makes the
comment that they aspire to combine
" with supreme discipline in the outer
world of action supreme freedom in the
inner world of thought." Professor
Francke says : " The State is the mani-
festation of the divine on earth, an or-
ganism uniting in itself all spiritual and
moral aspirations."

In Westermann's Monatsheften for
February, 1916, Professor Budde has
published an illuminating article on Ger-
man idealism. He says : " It is the
fundamental thought in the contempla-
tion of the world (Weltanschauung)
which is called idealism that man, al-
though he has sprung from nature, is
neveriheless something more than a mere
being of nature. On the contrary, in
him is a new revelation of truth, with him
appears a new world which lends him a

NOTE.— Dr. Benjamin Meade Bolton is a native of Virginia. He attended the University of
Heidelberg, 1883-4; Gottinaen, 1884-6; Berlin, 1886. He has held professorships in Johns
Hopkins and other American colleges, and is well known in scientific circles as a biologist
and bacteriologist. He has given close study to philosophical subjects and has been-
interested in cognate questions relating to Germany.

674 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The Neiv York Times

peculiar dignity and greatness, and pre-
sents high aims to his activities. In this
way man is liberated from the conse-
quences of nature's happenings, and is
lifted up into the realm of freedom in
which it is possible for him to shape his
life In untrammeled spontaneity, and
thus also to wrest from the world of ex-
perience an inner personal independence
and to act upon it in an elevating and
ennobling manner. * * * Especially
characteristic of German idealism is pre-
cisely this action out of the realm of free-
dom upon the world of experience filled
with its manifold contradictions."

This freedom of which Professor Budde
writes is not the freedom of lawlessness.
Not the freedom of the pioneer in the
wild forest. Not the privilege of escape
from duty. It is a subjective freedom,
but man attains to its highest exercise
only by contact with the world upon
which he impresses his will and from
which he must extort all that is possible.
He must force from her by his " will to
power " all that he can. He must exert
his energies continuously and strenuously.
He must surmount one difficulty only to
attack another. Striving is an end in
itself. Stress and strain bring develop-
ment.

German idealism is thus in striking
contrast to the Hindu idealism, which
aims at a suppression of striving after
the things of the world. To the Hindu
the world is merely a dreadful figment
of man's imagination, and the highest
goal is the attainment of a state in which
man's soul is unaffected by this night-
mare. In order not to add to the horrors
of the dream, man should do nothing to
cause pain or suffering to any living
being, man or animal; but while he sor-
rows with others in their pain, he must
regard his own sufferings with indiffer-
ence. He must attain to Nirvana, a
placid indifference to his own individual
pleasures or pain.

But to the German idealism tho world
is not " a tent where takes his one-day's
rest a Sultan to the realm of death ad-
dress." On the contrary, the world is a
busy workshop. Not a pottery where
man molds soft clay, but a sculptor's
workroom where man hews with hard

blows of the chisel the image from the
resisting stone. Life is no phantom
caravan coming from nowhere, proceed-
ing no whither. Life is constant striving
and seeking with definite aims and pur-
poses. Man is not a ball cast down upon
the field rolling " left or right as strikes
the player." Man himself is the player,
he strikes the ball. Man comes upon
earth not to sit and watch an idle passing
show, he is here to dominate the world
and to shape its destinies. He must let
nothing interfere with his progress, but
if need be he must ruthlessly trample
upon all opposition. In comparison with
this ideal, Professor Dewey says : " That
the French and the English should have
specific objects in view, particular ad-
vantages to gain and disadvantages to
avoid, seems to many highly instructed
Germans * * * something pecul-
iarly base."

German idealism is also in strong con-
trast to Greek idealism. According to
the Greek philosophy the world is a beau-
tiful and perfect work of art, and man's
aim is to cultivate himself to an appre-
ciation of this truth. The world itself
needs no improvement, is incapable of
improvement, only man's capacity for
appreciation of the world is limited, and
needs to be developed. Man cannot
change the world, which moves in ever-
repeating cycles according to immutable
laws. A cycle ends in a cataclysm in
which all is destroyed, or rather all dis-
appears as in a mist. A new cycle begins
by the reassembling of the dissociated
elements. The same course is pursued as
in the former cycle. The same objects
as before appear, and after ages and
ages the same cataclysm overtakes the
world, and then there is a renewal of the
cycle. This was at least one Greek con-
ception. Man in this case is merely one
of the elements of the cosmos. He can
not by taking thought add to nor sub-
tract from the inevitable repetition of
history. As a clock runs its course, and
finally runs down and has to be wound
up and started over, so the world passes
through its phases, stops, and is started
all over again.

The difference between the Hindu
idealism and the Greek idealism on the

GERMAN IDEALISM

675

one hand, and the German idealism on
the other, is stated by Professor Budde
as follows:

"In the idealism of India, which pro-
claims the whole world with its restless,
senseless activities to be a world of vis-
ions upon which the human heart may
not depend, there is no interaction with
the world. It declares all attempt to
conquer the world through intelligence
as futile, it is vain to try to elevate hu-
manity by any appeal to the lessons
taught by the world's history. In Greek
idealism the world is a wonderful work
of art, a ..masterly cosmos whose con-
templation promises the purest happi-
ness. It is true that here also the indi-
vidual must climb to the height of this
contemplation, but ' the world as a whole
needs no alteration. With unerring
rhythm of rising and falling, the life of
the whole runs here from eternity to
eternity/ Here also no history results,
no universal historic work. In German
idealism, on the contrary, appears a world
of freedom and of deeds, a world of
independent subjectivity, founded upon
itself and having no relation to outside
help. Man can develop this to its full
extent only when he comes into relation
with the world around him as he finds
it, and absorbs from it as much as he
can. This involves a mighty struggle.
Thus German idealism is not only an
idealism of thought, but an idealism of
deed."

Perhaps the two most definite concep-
tions in German idealism are duty and
freedom, duty consisting in continuous,
strenuous activity, freedom, but not
irresponsibility in a subjective world.
This subjective world is above and vast-
ly superior to the objective upon which it
impresses itself, and which it modifies
and molds and remolds according to a
deliberate plan and system. There have
been many weighty exponents of the ideal
of duty and freedom in this sense. Eman-
uel Kant was its chief exponent. Pro-
fessor Budde quotes Euchen as saying:
" He (Kant) above all others created the
spiritual atmosphere in which German
idealism gained its peculiar shape and its
overpowering strength. Kant is for us
Germans the teacher and prophet of

duty. * * * But Kant is also at the
same time the teacher and prophet of
freedom. But freedom is to him not the
casting aside of restraint, nor the shap-
ing of one's life according to one's indi-
vidual choice; but consists in the selec-
tion of rational aims and thus an uncon-
strained union with a self-selected law.

" Schiller was heart and soul in har-
mony with Kant's doctrine of freedom.
He also proclaimed the superiority of
man to all the mechanism of nature, and
demands of the human being an awaken-
ing of a proud self -consciousness, repre-
senting as he does in himself the essen-
tial factors in freedom's realm."

From this conception of duty it fol-
lows that there must be performance.
So that German idealism is not only an
idealism of thought, but it is also an
idealism of deed. Fichte is the chief ex-
ponent of the idealism of deed. He taught
that action is greater than thought. That
it seizes upon thought and tears it vio-
lently with itself. It converts thought
itself into action, " an appropriation, a
metamorphosis, a mastery of circum-
stances."

Praises of German idealism have been
very loudly sung by its many standard
bearers. Two examples quoted from
Schelling and from Schleirmacher by
Professor Budde will serve to show the
admiration, vlmost idolatry, with which
it is regarded. Schelling calls the Ger-
mans: " This folk from whom proceeded
the revolution in Middle European
thought, whose mental energies have
brought forth the greatest discoveries,
who have given laws to heaven itself, and
delved more deeply than all others into
the secrets of the world. The folk to
whom nature has given an unerring per-
ception of truth, and implanted a thirst
for the knowledge of first causes more
deeply than in any other race." Schleir-
macher wrote at the time when Germany
lay bleeding and crushed after the
catastrophe of Jena: " Never can I come
to the point of doubting the Fatherland, I
believe in it too firmly for that; for I
know full well that it is a chosen tool and
folk of God. It is possible that for a
while all our efforts will be vain, and
that for us will come a hard and oppres-

676

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

sive period. But the Fatherland will
certainly soon rise up triumphant."

Never in its history has the German
folk been so profoundly aroused as at
the present, and they are actuated by an
idealism which " seeks to convert all life
into a continuous deed, and to demon-
strate their convictions."

Professor Euchen, in a book addressed
to the soldiers at the front, says in clos-
ing: " If idealism of thought and ideal-
ism of deed have been fused together in a

solid union with us, then there lies before
our folk a glorious future, and all the
burden of the present war becomes light-
ened if it brings us to the portal of such
a future."

They may be deceived. It may be that
the war has been fomented by the Kaiser
and the junkers for selfish ends, that the
munition manufacturers have led the peo-
ple by the nose. But there can be no
doubt that the war now is an expression
of the martial spirit of the folk.

"Belgians Under the German Eagle"

rnHE most comprehensive statement
J_ that has yet been made of what
Belgium has suffered under Ger-
man rule and of the attitude of the
people toward it is offered in Jean Mas-
sart's " Belgians Under the German
Eagle," (E. P. Button & Co.,) which has
been translated by Bernard Miall. The
author is one of the Vice Directors of
the Royal Academy of Belgium. His
method has been to take indisputable
German documents and from these to
show what the Germans did, and then,
by massing, analyzing, and comparing
them, " to derive a few indications as
to our enemies' manner of thinking."

In this introduction he tells with con-
siderable detail how their conquerors
have endeavored to keep from the Bel-
gians all news of happenings in Bel-
gium or elsewhere, except such as could
be found in German newspapers. He
tells with evident zest the means the
Belgians have taken to outwit these
many prohibitions by the smuggling in
of newspapers and the secret circulation
of typewritten extracts and articles
from foreign journals. The German
hand is heavy upon those caught mak-
ing or circulating these extracts. Never-
theless, M. Massart says, " there are in
Brussels alone fifteen of these secret
sheets, each of which has its public of
subscribers. From time to time our
oppressors scent out one of these type-
writing establishments, but some other

devoted person immediately continues
the business."

The two chapters devoted to the inter-
national aspect of the Belgian invasion
make a thoroughgoing exhibit of the
evidence. These chapters are illuminated
with many incidents, by means of which
the author endeavors to prove the Ger-
man purpose and to show that their
actions were not the outcome of tem-
porary necessity. The chapter on " Vio-
lations of The Hague Convention " takes
up extensively the variety and results
of those infractions still existing in the
occupation of Belgium as well as those
committed during its invasion. " The
German Mind Self-Depicted," which fills
half the book, offers many pages of quo-
tations, extracts, incidents, all going to
paint the blackest kind of a picture of
German intellect and morals. " Treach-r
ery and untruthfulness," M. Massart
comments in one place, " are the chief
weapons employed by our enemies." The
German attempt to organize industry in
Belgium, which he describes at length,
moves him to many sarcasms. After
pages of the plainest speaking and most
specific accounts that have yet been
given of cruel and bestial behavior on the
part of German troops, both men and
officers, he remarks: "A man amuses
himself as he can — or, to put it more
plainly, according to his mentality." The
book is written in a spirit of defiant
contempt toward the invaders.

The Theory of Nationalities

By Dr. Conrad Bornhak

Professor of Public Law at the University of Berlin

[Adapted for CURRENT HISTORY from a recent article by Dr. Bornhak in Die Grenzboten, a
Berlin magazine, ridiculing1 the Allies' political theory of nationalities]

WHEN, a century ago, the great
rearrangements of the map of
Europe were made by the last
council of the States of the
Holy Roman Empire, by Napoleon, and
by the Congress of Vienna, no attention
whatever was paid to the so-called prin-
ciple of nationalities. Countries and na-
tions were juggled without any consid-
eration for historical, lingual, or na-
tional unities. For more than a decade,
up to the Congress of Vienna, the inhab-
itants of some countries had changed
masters every few years as it pleased
the arbitrary will of the great Corsican.
It was the main task of the diplomats
who assembled at Vienna to attempt to
bring about a condition of permanency,
although few believed that the end could
be achieved and that the new arrange-
ment would endure for any length of
time. The claims of many small States
received but scant attention from the
congress, and dissatisfaction was gen-
eral. Revolution succeeded revolution
until the steadily weakening police power
of the Holy Alliance collapsed with the
revolutions of July, 1830. The libera-
tion from Napoleon's yoke had not
brought with it the desired relief.

The reason was simple. National
aspirations were nowhere adequately
recognized by the Congress of Vienna.
Italy, for instance, even yearned for a
return of the Napoleonic conditions. The
Congress had merely re-established the
old traditional dynastic regimes. Against
these the revolutionaries asserted the
new principle of nationalities as the only
reliei from conditions they found intoler-
able. The old dynastic principle was to
be thrown overboard and new States were
to be built up on the principle of racial,
lingual, and historical unity. The various
divisions of such units, hitherto split up
into different States or subject to for-

eign rule, were to be bound together into
self-governing nations.

Singularly enough, the proponents of
this theory ascribed its origin as a politi-
cal doctrine to the great Corsican, de-
spite the fact that he had tossed coun-
tries and nations about according to his
imperious will. That the theory of na-
tionalities never entered his mind is ob-
vious. France itself never appeared as
an ethnic unity or a national State to
him, but only as the nucleus for a uni-
versal empire, all the component parts
of which, no matter what their history or
language, were to be subject to the auto-
cratic rule of his own dynasty. But for
all that, the principle of nationalities had
its source and origin in none other than
Napoleon — contradictory as the state-
ment may seem. The Emperor's tyr-
annous rule reacted on the oppressed and
suffering people. The sense of national
identity awakened in them and that
dream of cosmopolitanism that had sway-
ed and vitiated the eighteenth century
faded away. The petty rivaling States
learned the necessity of co-operation, of
combining interests and forces, to gain
a national existence. Napoleon created
the national sense by his very efforts to
crush it.

Against this growing national con-
sciousness the dynastic regimes set up
by the Vienna Congress were pitted. The
task of preserving the Holy Alliance, al-
though he was not the author of it, fell
upon Metternich.

The basic purpose of all that subtle
statesman's complicated policy was the
safeguarding of the Austrian Empire,
child of the Vienna Congress, and cre-
ated altogether with a view to the most
advantageous natural boundaries. The
State was a conglomeration of races and
languages, and its preservation depended
upon the avoidance of clash between the

678 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

various nationalities. So Metternich
sought to block and hinder the national
constitutional movements in Germany
and Italy, lest the contagion affect Aus-
tria and cause the divergent nations of
the empire to assert their individuality
and try to set up independent Govern-
ments. The conditions in the empire
sprawling along the Danube forced Met-
ternich to oppose the principle of nation-
alities and fight against constitutional-
ism.

But again, as with Napoleon, these
were strengthened by opposition. An
even greater result was now achieved.
For these two principles, at first op-
posed, now united to meet the common
enemies of conservatism and absolutism.
In both Germany and Italy the Liberals
saw clearly the necessity for national
unity in order to muster their full
strength against their enemies. In Italy,
for instance, up to 1820 the constitution-
al movements in Sicily, Naples, and Pied-
mont had been distinctly local affairs
and in no wise related. But Austria's ef-
forts to suppress these movements
showed the leaders that they could
achieve their ends only by joining forces
and interests.

The same thing was happening in Ger-
many. When the Vienna Congress set up
the Rhenish Confederacy the various
States were created arbitrarily, and the
spirit of petty local antagonism, of pro-
vincial individualism, was encouraged.
Metternich, as leader of the Bundestag,
fostered these jealousies and bickerings.
The liberals of South Germany fought
against this, and took up as their battle
cry: " Through unity to liberty! "

But this ideal was not realized. Even
as late as 1848 the principle of jealous
nationality governed the various revo-
lutionary movements in Germany as
well as in Italy, and the leaders evinced
no desire to merge the various small
States into large united groups. When
the representatives of the various Ger-
man States assembled in St. Paul's at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, the spirit of
separatism swayed their action. The
strongest and most firmly established
State, Prussia, afforded a nucleus about
which the other States might have

grouped themselves in a united German
Nation. Unfortunately this consolidation
was impossible. The spirit of separatism
was too strong for the evolution of a
broad national policy. In Italy, although
the expulsion of Austria from Lombard-
Venetia and the union of the latter ter-
ritory with Sardinia was regarded as the
elementary condition of liberty, liberal
constitutionalism on the basis of non-
union was the ruling doctrine. The near-
est approach to a united Italy conceived
of was a loose confederacy of the Italian
States under a Papal Presidency. The
development of the constitutional State
based upon the union of small districts
having a broad national unity, although
each distinguished by local characteris-
tics, was hindered by the regard paid to
such petty differences.

In the conditions in Italy Napoleon III.
found a potent weapon for his diplomatic
conflict with Austria. The new French
Emperor was the first sovereign who
consciously based his foreign policy on
the theory of nationalities, although
Thiers warned him that Italian unity
would inevitably bring about German
unity, a result as undesirable for his
purposes as Italian unity was necessary.
His motives were not altogether unself-
ish. To Napoleon III. the principle of
nationalities was merely the means of
uprooting the rule of Austria in Italy
and planting in its place the rule of
France supported my Lombardian and
Sardinian vassal States. Napoleon never
thought of a complete Italian union, and
as soon as this tendency manifested itself
strongly he devoted the remaining years
of his reign to efforts to save the rem-
nants of the Papal States. The support
of the French clericals was indispensable
to the maintenance of his throne and the
dissolution of trie Papal States would
have alienated the clericals.

On the other hand, the encouragement
he had given the spirit of nationalism in
Italy tied his hands in dealing with Ger-
many. Thiers's prediction was justified
by events. The tendency to unity was
growing beyond the Rhine. Napoleon
even gave unwitting aid to this. In the
peace of Prague he insisted, in accord-
ance with the ethnological principle, on

THE THEORY OF NATIONALITIES

679

the restoration (subject to a future ple-
biscite) of the predominantly Danish por-
tions of Northern Schleswig to Denmark.
Viewed with the knowledge of the swell-
ing tide of the movement for German
unity, that was but a petty political trick.
Indeed, the Emperor's foreign policy was
driven on the rocks by the very spirits
he had conjured to guide it. It met with
least approval from the French them-
selves and brought in its train conse-
quences that proved most distasteful to
them.

To the three rulers who evoked, op-
posed, and favored it, the spirit of na-
tionalism proved an enemy. Its realiza-
tion, although imperfect, in Germany and
Italy had direful consequences for Na-
poleon III.

Almost coincident with this develop-
ment in Western Europe, nationalism
began to play a role in Eastern Europe,
in the Balkan provinces of the crumbling
Turkish Empire. Hellenes, Rumanians,
and Slavs were called upon in the name
of their history or of their lingual and
national associations, to liberate them-
selves from the rule of the Porte. But
here, again, the slogan of ethnology was
simply a handy device for the foreign
policy of another great European power,
Russia. A strange paradox! The power
which had annihilated Poland and
stripped her of every vestige of inde-
pendence, the power that regarded the
Ukrainians as merely a part of the Rus-
sian people, now felt called- upon to free
the various nationalities in the Balkan
portions of the Turkish Empire!

The real purpose of the Czar's policy,
the acquisition of Constantinople and the
Dardanelles, (where no Russians or Slavs
dwelt!) was a downright mockery of na-
tionalism. Not a whit disturbed by this
inconsistency, Russia calmly set up the
stalking horses of Pan-Slavism and the
necessity for the political unity of all
communicants of the Orthodox Church.
They were, to an extent, necessary, and
in all respects convenient. Pan-Slavism
justifies the incorporation of the Ukrain-
ians and the Poles into Russia, and makes
the Czar lord protector of the Balkan
States. Of course, Pan-Slavism would
hardly justify the assimilation of Greeks

and Rumanians, but in regard to them
the holy Orthodox Church would indeed
cover a multitude of sins!

The Balkan countries, inspired by
preachments of nationalism and with the
sanction of Russia, waged the first Bal-
kan war for freedom from the Ottoman
yoke. Russia had merely reserved for
herself the right to pluck the choicest
fruit — Constantinople. That the devel-
opment of nationalities was not the real
object was plain to be seen. And Russia,
like Napoleon III., found nationalism a
two-edged tool, and was soon forced to
discard it. Bulgaria, as a powerful Slav
State right at the gates of Constantino-
ple, would have been Turkey's best bul-
wark against Russia. So Bulgaria had
to be enfeebled, in the face of encourage-
ments given the principle of nationalities.
That was the purpose of the second Bal-
kan war, waged by her former confeder-
ates against Bulgaria. In the racial Ba-
bel of the Balkans separation based on
ethnic or lingual boundaries is absolutely
impossible. But even so, there is no other
excuse for the handing over of the great
bulk of the Macedonian Bulgars to Serbia
but that the latter was the more servile
vassal of Russia.

In the first Balkan war against Tur-
key the Balkan League had only to prove
its fitness. Its main task, which was to
come later, was, in alliance with Russia,
and again in the name of the ethnologi-
cal principle, to crush Austria, that
loosely thrown together State of all sorts
of nationalities. It was a pity that,
owing to the second Balkan war against
Bulgaria, the tool was broken before it
could be used for the main object, and
that all attempts to mend it were frus-
trated by Serbo-Bulgarian enmity. Rus-
sia was forced to content herself with the
Serbs and Montenegrins, and to rely on
other powerful allies.

The world war began with protesta-
tions from belligerent after belligerent
of firm belief in the principle of nation-
alities— the principle of liberating the
small oppressed nations.

It would have been simpler to begin at
home; no war was necessary to apply
this principle. England had ample op-
portunity in Ireland, India, and with the

680

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Boers in South Africa; Russia might have
taken this principle as her guide in deal-
ing with the Finns, the Poles, and the
Ukrainians; Serbia with the Macedonians.
However, "upright men think of them-
selves but last."

Russia purposed to assert the princi-
ple of nationalities only against the Cen-
tral Powers. In order to attain that end,
she contemplated the restoration of Po-
land under the Muscovite hegemony. Ac-
cording to that, she could claim Western
Galicia and the semi-Polish portions of
Prussia, while Eastern Galicia, since it
was inhabited by the Ruthenes, was ob-
viously naturally and irresistibly Russian.
Pan-Slavism justified all the elements in
this plan that could not be justified by
nationalism. The Ukrainians, therefore,
were to be considered as Russians and
the Poles as Slavs. On the other hand,
since nationalism and Pan-Slavism would
not fit the case, the fact that millions
of Germans were settled in the Baltic
provinces was totally ignored.

Dismemberment of Austria in the
south was to take place in the interests
of the liberation of nations. The area in-
habited by Serbs, Croats, and even Slo-
venes was intended for Greater Serbia
under " Peter the Mighty." Serbs and
Croats are of the same nationality, it is
true, but both religion and alphabet sepa-
rate them and have been the cause of
bitter enmity for years.* This enmity
has been mitigated — and that only slight-
ly— by their common hatred of the Mag-
yars. But the Roman Catholic Croats
have a profound contempt for the Greek
Church Serbs, and would never have sub-
mitted to the domination of the latter.
The Slovenes are of a totally different
nationality, without any racial or lingual
ties with the Serbo-Croats.

But the emptiness of the shibboleth is
shown most strikingly in the rewards
promised other Balkan States. If Ru-
mania entered the war on the side of
Russia, euphemistically described as
" showing good-will," she was to be
awarded Transylvania; this district, al-

*The Croats are Roman Catholics and use
the Latin script ; the Serbs belong to the
Eastern Orthodox Church and use the Cyrillic
alphabet.

though the majority af its inhabitants
are Rumanian, yet had many Saxons
and Magyars among its population. The
Russians claimed Bukowina, and the
Serbs the Banate, although both terri-
tories were regarded as unsettled prob-
lems as long as negotiations concerning
an alliance were pending. On the other
hand, in exchange for Transylvania Ru-
mania would have been forced to cede
Moldavia up to the Sereth (with the cap-
ital of Jassy) and the Dobrudja to the
Russians, who had already arrived at an
understanding with England on this
point. The result would have been to cut
Rumania off from the sea altogether.
And the territories claimed by Russia are
inhabited by a motley crowd of all sorts
of nationalities — except Russians!

Last of all Italy came forward in the
name of holy egotism, and in the name of
the principle of nationalities called upon
Austria to cede the Irredenta, that land
still unredeemed that was necessary for
the consummation of Italy's national
unity. For Italy to demand this of Aus-
tria was somewhat one-sided. The work
of redemption might well have begun at
Nice, Corsica, or Malta. But Italy's de-
mands on Austria far exceeded the prin-
ciple of nationalities. Not to speak of
the Al Brennero border, the Italian Min-
istry had the assurance during the offi-
cial negotiations preceding the declara-
tion of war to demand that the boundary
lines of the Italian domain in Tyrol
should be those laid down by Napoleon I.
in 1811, and should include the town of
Bozen, which is German to the core.
Austria even agreed to an Italian occu-
pation of the " Dodekan " in the Greek
Archipelago, and of the Albanian port
of Valona, and was also willing to de-
clare her disinterestedness in Albania.

The Italian demands began with the
liberation of districts which were cl imed
as ac'ually Italian in the terms of the
principle of nationalities, but very soon
it became evident that her Ministers had
an eye for the natural frontiers which
they considered to lie in the north near
the Brenner. That decision, from a geo-
graphical point of view, is comprehen-
sible. But how the demands made of Al-
bania and the Greek Archipelago were

THE THEORY OF NATIONALITIES

681

to be justified passes comprehension. In
fact, if the demands made by Italy in the
name of nationalities had been satisfied,
the most monstrous outrage would have
been committed on alien nationalities, on
Germans, Serbs, Albanians, and Greeks.

Of course, Alsace-Lorraine was to be
returned to France as a prize of victory,
again by token of the ethnological prin-
ciple. The assertion was that the two
provinces really belonged to France; that
the peace of Frankfort had torn them
from her, and that that peace was null
and void. So Joffre, sans fac.on, pro-
claimed outside the Mulhouse schoolhouse
the reunion of Alsace-Lorraine with
France. Not even a plebiscite — to which
France on other occasions had attached
so much importance — was to be taken.
No one saw fit to mention the fact that
only 10 per cent, of the inhabitants of
the province, most of them along the
Lorraine border, are a French-speaking
people. The other 90 per cent, number
about one and one-half millions, and
speak German. They are Alemans and
Franks. To them the union of Alsace-
Lorraine with France for the sake of a
few thousand Frenchmen would mean a
monstrous violation of the principle of
nationalities.

And lest a humorous and satirical as-
pect be wanting to that solemn ethnic
principle, the future conditions of peace
were to include the neutralization of the
Kiel Canal; the area north of it was to
be handed back to Denmark. Probably
the idea was that all Schleswig and the
northern part of Dithmarshen were in-
habited by Danes.

Last of all, England declared war for
the protection of Belgium, or, generaliz-
ing, as became the fashion later, in de-
fense of all the smaller' nationalities.
Here, too, the ethnic principle is raised.
The ethnologists seem to forget that from
their own point of view a Belgian Nation
never existed, nay, that the creation of
the Belgian Nation, from first to last,
was a contradiction in itself.

No other war, except the first Balkan
war, has ever yet been started so con-
sciously on all sides in the name of eth-
nology. The reason was simple. To as-
sert the principle of nationalities meant

to threaten the dismemberment of Aus-
tria as a State of varied nationalities,
and Austria was one of the two great
powers against which the war was waged
from the outset. That the principle of
nationalities was .everywhere but a pre-
text is equally obvious. To carry out the
objects of the war, as Russia, England,
France, Italy, and their smaller allies
had in mind, would everywhere mean an
outrage to alien nationalities. But there-
by the ethnic principle seems to have
surpassed the summit of its historical
mission.

It is the nature of every ideal that it
cannot be fully realized in this world of
realities, but is at all times beset with
difficulties, has its wings clipped, and in
the end is forced to make a compromise
with the practical world. Thus, in mod-
ern history, there has never been a State
that fully realized the ethnic ideal — a
State which united the whole nation in a
racial or linguistic sense, and united only
that particular nation or ethnic unity in
a national existence. Some States have
approached this ideal somewhat closely,
others have been far from it. Very re-
mote were such States as Austria, Switz-
erland, and Belgium, and the ethnic con-
ditions of the United States and the
great colonial empires are chaotic.

Nevertheless, when modern States at
the beginning of modern history were
just beginning to emerge, the principle of
nationalities proved to be a powerful
State-shaping force. The Italian and
German movement for political union and
the liberation of the Balkans testify to
that. But the very power of the force
had in it the potentialities for abuse at
the hand of an ambitious foreign policy.
Napoleon III. speculated heavily in the
ethnic principle and lost. The Quadruple
Entente is doing the same today and los-
ing. It was an abuse to assert the ethnic
principle merely as a pretext for con-
quest. A victory of the four confederates
would mean an abuse of that very prin-
ciple in whose name the war is waged.

Germany's peace terms will probably
not be guided by the principle of nation-
alities. They will not rest on illusion or
delusion.

Austria and Turkey, the two great race

682 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

mixtures among the nations, stand firmer
than ever today, thanks to the war. Their
dismemberment would be an unpromising
undertaking indeed.

The German purpose in the war is
alone a guarantee for the future.

" We must obtain and fight for all
possible guaranties and safeguards so
that none of our enemies, either single
or allied, will again venture on a pas-
sage of arms," the German Imperial
Chancellor declared in a speech which he
made on May 28, 1915. If that object
is supported by the ethnic principle in
the Balkans, Flanders, or elsewhere,
well and good. But Germany's only ob-
ject in this war is security for the
future.

However, experience proves that ideas
which have fallen in disuse in Europe
are taken up beyond the seas. May be

that this war will spread the ethnic idea
outside of Europe. There is a mighty
stir among the nationalities in India,
Egypt, Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, and
among the Mohammedan tribes that are
subject to the Czar. All those national
movements are just like Russian Pan-
Slavism, supported by an underlying
idea which outgrows the ethnic principle
in the political interest of the State.
" Asia for the Asiatics " is a slogan with
which the Japanese world-power (that
invoked England's aid for the conquest
of Kiao-Chau) menaces Eastern Siberia,
the British and French possessions in
Further India. The Allies have only to
wait to see who will be the first to be
victimized by the Far Eastern bird of
prey.

Spirits are easily conjured up, but ex-
orcised with difficulty.

Prussian Scorn of Nationalities

By Hilaire Belloc

As an interesting pendant to the fore-
going article by Dr. BornJiak we 'present
Mr. Belloc's strongly British view of the
same subject, as expressed in Land and
Water:

ONE might summarize the whole
thing by saying that the old Euro-
pean tradition of national rights
stood out clearly at the beginning of the
war as a main issue between the com-
batants, but that developments taking
place in the course of the war confused
it until it became, in the month of May,
1916, entirely obscured.

Now I would suggest that the future
of the war, particularly as the Central
Empires begin to feel the material and
obvious effects upon the map and in
their pockets and their resources and
their armies of that defeat which they
have already potentially suffered, will
revive this matter of nationality and will
perhaps end by leaving it as clear as it
was in the beginning.

This accident we shall largely owe to
the stupidity of the enemy. Let us con-

sider how he has dealt with the matter
to his hand.

Belgium, he might claim, was but a
very modern artificial State divided into
a Flemish-speaking and a Teutonic-
speaking population, and further divided
on the question of religion, and yet again
divided by the great quarrel between the
proletariat and the capitalist. The enemy
has done nothing to take advantage of
any of these points in his favor. He has
impartially destroyed the monuments of
the one portion of Belgium as of the
other. The violation, the tortures, and
the burnings have proceeded from a
general desire to feel great at the ex-
pense quite as much of those who speak
Flemish as of the Walloons. He has
further, which is especially foolish of
him, shown an utter lack of thoroughness
in this as in his other experiments in
terror.

When he has found that his actions
adversely affected neutral opinion, es-
pecially American opinion, he has
apologized for them and restricted the

PRUSSIAN SCORN OF NATIONALITIES

683

activity of his agents, then foolishly al-
lowed their activity to break out again.
The whole thing here has been on the
same model as the incredibly stupid
bombardment of the Cathedral of Rheims.
There was no conceivable reason for that
outrage at its beginning save to show to
the French that Prussia was perfectly
ruthless, and therefore to be feared. To
prove this, Prussian gunners were
ordered to destroy the national monu-
ments to which the French were chiefly
attached. They dropped shell in con-
formity with their orders upon the
Cathedral of Rheims, which was at the
moment being used as a hospital, and
was flying, I believe, a huge Red Cross
flag. When they had ruined the glass
and burned the roof and destroyed a
certain number of statues attached to the
building they ceased their efforts, ap-
parently in surprise at the way in which
they had been received by the civilized
world. But the enemy did not cease them
altogether. From time to time he would
launch a shell in the direction of the
cathedral in order to do a little more
damage. He did himself the maximum of
moral harm with the minimum of effect.
And he is still at it. The Cathedral of
Rheims is a target at a range of a little
over 6,000 yards from the foremost of
his guns. It is larger than Westminster
Abbey and is not concealed by tall sur-
rounding buildings of any sort. He
cannot plead error. It -is sheer fatuous-
ness. It is the alternative emotion that
men pass through when they do not quite
know on what platform they stand — and
so it has been in Belgium and in Eastern
France. There is no guarantee that the
long period of repose through which
some districts have passed may not at
any moment be followed by another out-
burst of violence.

In Poland there has been another his-
tory. Poland was occupied in connection
with the great advance against the
Russian armies. The military object of
that advance was clear — it was the de-
struction of the Russian armies by
envelopment. It failed altogether. Its
attempt was only possible through the
lack of munitionment from which the
Russians suffered, but, on the other hand,

the Austro-Germans were correspond-
ingly tied by their heavy artillery, and
on six successive occasions six successive
plans for the envelopment of a great
portion of the Russian forces failed.
When the effort was exhausted, Poland
as a whole was occupied by the enemy's
armies and evacuated by the Russian
armies. The race and the people had
suffered enormously. They had already
been divided between three powers — the
Prussians, the Russians, and the Aus-
trians — of whom they hated the Prus-
sians by far the most. With the Russians
they had a long hereditary quarrel, only
somewhat softened in modern times.
Their situation under Austrian rule was
by far the best.

One might have thought that Austro-
German armies appearing in the country
with such a historical foundation for
their rule would have taken immediate
advantage of what was but an accidental
result of their failure to destroy the
Russian forces. One might have imag-
ined that they would have consolidated
this moral opportunity by some sort of
statecraft, however clumsy, as they did
the material opportunity by the estab-
lishment of their trenches. Nothing of
the sort. There has been a perpetual
change of plan in their dealings with
the Polish and Jewish population, so far
as the Prussians were concerned; and
the Prussians were more and more the
masters. They seemed unable to decide
whether they would consolidate or
whether they would merely bully the
miserable remains of the population.
Whatever be the situation of the Polish
peasants now subject to Austrian rule
alone, it is certain by every account we
receive that the Polish and Lithuanian
population under Prussian rule has suf-
fered from the unstable policy of the
Prussian commanders as no other district
in Europe has suffered. It continues to
suffer even in the simple matter of
victualing. Prussia cannot make up its
mind whether it is better to leave memo-
ries of starvation among these people or
to see them fed.

What is happening in the Balkans
exactly we do not know. Accounts are
confused. But so much is certain that

684 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the wise playing of the Serbians against
the Bulgarians has not been attempted.
There has been nothing but the crude
overrunning of the Serbian districts,
accompanied with every form of torture
and barbarity. It has been a sort of
revenge taken against a thing which
proved at last much weaker than the
power which was exasperated by its
former resistance. There has been no
trace of statesmanship in the matter.
Only of hatred.

Now the sum total of these blunders
would seem to be this: So long as the
Central Empires can maintain their ex-
tended lines and can govern by merely
military rule the populations within
those lines the national questions remain
obscure. But the moment a shifting of
the lines begins, the moment the military
grasp ceases to be sufficiently firm to
maintain so vast an extent of territory,
there will be no moral result left in sup-
port of the Austro-German cause.

Bohemia wished to be Slav, but never
wished to be attached to any Slav group.

Catholic Southern Slavs in Croatia had
their difference with the Orthodox Ser-
bians of the same race. The Rumanian
population subject to Magyar rule was
largely Uniate and garrisoned, geo-
graphically, as it were, by German
settlers and Magyar colonies.

Of all these opportunities no advan-
tage has been taken.

With the first shaking of the line now
covering the Austro-Hungarian mon-
archy every one of those national riddles
will again present itself for solution.

In the case of the Germans the matter

is differently but much more intensely
true. When the Russians reappear in
Lithuania and in Poland the age-long
quarrel between them and the Western
Slav will exist, no doubt, but it will be
accentuated in no way by a new feeling
produced in the course of the war in
favor of the Germans. It will almost
certainly be the other way. And there is
no conceivable standing ground now — as
there might so well have been a few
months ago — for divided opinion in Bel-
gium at the moment of a general retire-
ment. That retirement will produce
nothing at all but a sensation of relief.

In the mere mechanics of the war this
factor of national feeling will have very
little effect. The nations are too highly
mobilized, their manhood too completely
employed, for civilian opinion to count in
the field as it counted in the old wars of
professional armies. But it remains true
that the settlement of Europe after the
war will be adverse to the Central
Powers in a fashion that it might not
have been if they had used the few
months of their unexpected territorial
expansion (as much unexpected by them
as by us, and as little connected with
their victory as their defeat) wisely and
upon a consistent plan.

They were unable to show such wis-
dom. They were unable to follow a sus-
tained plan because they entered the
campaign, and particularly Prussia en-
tered the campaign, with a deliberate
scorn for the sanctity of a nation. Im-
morality on that scale is stupid, and
stupidity is the main agent of defeat
in war.

War's Effect on National Character

Following is a typical extract from an article by May Bateman, a well-
known English writer:

By that strangest of all paradoxes, war, itself crude, almost carnally mate-
rial, has aimed a death blow at the materialism which was sapping national life.
Hour upon hour we were becoming more smug, more self-complacent, more will-
fully blind to the eternal things. We worshipped our own image under a pret-
tier name; we denied the existence of Pain, and now we have had to kill Self,
and Pain has leaped upon us and stared us in the eyes and said, " Dare to deny
me now — you little clods, who do not even guess my name spells Love! " We
are more real now, most of us, than we have been for many a long year. We
have been driven out of the city of pleasure into the open immense field of life.

Trade Problems Confronting the Allies

By Luigi Luzzatti

Italian Statesman and Publicist

The following article on the complicated task facing the world of commerce and in-
dustry after the war was translated from the Corriere della Sera of Milan for CURRENT
HISTORY.

WHILE discussing with the great
Gladstone the artificial rebates
by means of which Germany,
Austria, and some minor na-
tions were introducing their sugar into
England, he answered me, with his fine
smile: "All that remains for us to do is
to open our mouths nicely and take it."
This answer epitomized the tendency of
an economic epoch.

In 1913, shortly before the outbreak of
the cruel conflict, a syndicate of fourteen
German, Austrian, Dutch, and Belgian
refineries offered to sell their sweet mer-
chandise to the wholesale dealers in
sugar of the United Kingdom at a heavy
discount if they would merely agree not
to buy sugar of any one else. Gladstone
would not only have opened but would
have distended the mouth from which
issued words sweeter than honey. The
Englishmen of 1913 refused the offer,
thus indicating the tendencies of a new
economic era.

It has been written and has been as-
serted orally that we are entering upon a
period in which political alliances may
facilitate tariff unions. We may aspire
to this, but an examination of the facts
in the case does not allow us to hope for
its immediate realization. Germany and
Austria-Hungary have been thinking over
and studying this question since the be-
ginning of the war, just as they did be-
fore hostilities began. Recently meet-
ings of expert delegates were held in
Vienna, in Budapest, and in Berlin, but,
although military enthusiasm urges them
to reach an understanding, they have not
yet been able to arrive at an agreement,
and the desired league will not be worked
out. Dr. Robatsch of Vienna, in a genial
essay, advocated an Austro-German tar-
iff union, but Deputy Gothein of Breslau
advises the abandonment of this " eco-
nomic dream," as insisting upon it might

even weaken the political alliance. By
means of weighty arguments, Gothein
tries to show that today a tariff union
requires a common parliament to make
customs laws and a common executive
power to enforce them, because today, in
contradistinction to the past, (the Ger-
man Zollverein,) the taxes collected at
the border are interrelated with all the
rest of the financial and economic life of
a nation.

The political and constitutional incon-
veniences of the Zollverein formed one
of the factors that promoted the political
unity of the German Empire. Renuncia-
tion of autonomy in tariff matters weak-
ens political sovereignty. This is ob-
served by the Germans, and especially
by the Austro-Hungarians, who are
weaker than the former industrially.
And it is even noticed by the free and
patriotic colonies of Great Britain, which
are glad to give a " preferential tariff "
to the mother country. But how can
you plan out a customs union without a
parliamentary union ? And here is where
all the economic schemes go astray and
dissolve into thin air. Belgium and Hol-
land, when they were governed by great
men, Frere Orban and Torbeke, tried to
arrange a customs union, and the one
who is writing these lines was present
at those intimate discussions. The pa-
triotic design of these great men was
about to succeed when it went to pieces
before the difficulty of common legisla-
tion on sugar and on alcohol! If the -
customs union had succeeded it would
have paved the way for a military alli-
ance, and perhaps Belgium would have
been unscathed today!

But it is useless to try to force the
times by means of sighs. The present
tendency is to increase duties, and
through these to continue the war, trans-
forming the military conflict, when it

686

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

may be ended, into an economic one.
Something quite different from idealistic
hopes for universal peace! Therefore,
France, England, Russia, and Italy
should prepare themselves, not to dream,
(and they do not seem disposed to do
this,) but to take some necessary action.
The first thing is to improve all their
mutual economic relations, principally
and especially those pertaining to the
tariff. This is also something much
easier to say than to do, because of the
vast inequalities in the material condi-
tions of these countries.

What a large amount of French capi-
tal, for instance, has been sent to Rus-
sia in order to found industries there
that are highly protected! What would
happen in case the Russians should lower
the duties or abolish them, in the face of
competition by English industries? For
the sake of brevity, we shall limit our-
selves to this example, but such cases
could be multiplied so as to show clearly
how difficult an analysis proves the prob-
lem to be. Yet a synthesis must be
found and formulated. As a defense
against the Germanic-Austro-Hungarian
" bloc " it is first necessary to arrange
the agreement among the Quadruple En-
tente, and this pact will be less trouble-
some in proportion, as it is not expected
to work miracles.

And we may be allowed another ex-
ample. It is wished, and rightly so, to
create in the territory of the Allies some
industries that have been monopolized by
the Germans. Among these is the manu-
facture of coal-tar dyes, that astonishing
invention by English and French chem-
ists which has been applied no less aston-
ishingly by the German chemists and
industrialists, who have practically forced
their output upon the whole world by
means of the perfection of their products
and the moderation of their prices. If
all the States of the Quadruple Entente
start to make these dyes, as they now
have the intention of doing — and Japan
is preparing to follow suit — they will
not be able to export them, because of
the lack of an extensive market. If
every one works on his own account and
protects himself with high tariffs, not
only against Germany, but also against

friendly and allied States, it will signify
the continuous restriction of an industry
which in order to flourish and to branch
out into its marvelous divisions of labor,
needs to serve the entire world. Hence,
the first thing for the Allies to do in
order really to conquer Germany is to
agree among themselves, organizing, for
instance, a common financial society
which may apportion production accord-
ing to natural and technical aptitudes.
And if this plan is not accepted it is
necessary to think out another, as other-
wise we are preparing delusions and in-
dustrial defeats worse than the criminal
inertia of the past.

This example also, to which we shall
limit ourselves for the present, might be
multiplied many times, and each case
would bring out the sharp points of un-
expected difficulties. It is easier to write
in the form of a soliloquy, unhampered
by the contradictions of diverse and con-
flicting interests, than to take part in
a friendly dispute among experts. And
if we add to the experts the politicians,
(and how are you going to keep them
out?) who have the habit and even the
necessity of looking after the interests,
even the most minor ones, of their own
countries, in every discussion, it is clear
that every one of these cases will con-
stitute a new fact to be considered in
the customs arrangement. Therefore^
even in obtaining results much smaller
than the presumptuous hopes which fre-
quently deceive thoughtless enthusiasts,
discussions and negotiations, even among
Allies and friends, or, rather, specially
among Allies and friends, will strew the
road leading toward agreement with trib-
ulations and obstacles never seen in the
negotiations of the past, no matter how
hard and complicated they may have
been.

And if the Allies neither wish nor are
able to renounce the liberty of making
commercial treaties with countries out-
side the Alliance, they must promise each
other the benefit of the most favored
nation clause, in case their agreements
have not already included all possible
favors, and border on a preferential
tariff, which could never be granted to
friends who are not allies. Already the

TRADE PROBLEMS CONFRONTING THE ALLIES

687

mere announcement of this hypothesis
causes the appearance of puzzles, twists,
and renunciations of a new character.
The present writer knows something
about these things, as he has negotiated
with Canada, which, as has been noted,
is ready to establish tariffs of various
grades, ranging from the preferential
rate accorded to England to the extremes
of the general tariff against economic
adversaries. You may imagine what
would happen if the economic adversaries
were also enemies on the political field!
But, turning to the kernel of our ar-
gument, how are you going to prevent
the persons to whom are refused equita-
ble tariffs, who receive no special fa-
vors, &c., from emigrating to the fa-
vored States with their capital and their
technical experts and temporarily as-
suming, according to their custom, a na-
tional appearance? If the inhibition in-

tended to exclude them is not put into
effect by wise and powerful methods,
you will have the dreaded enemy in your
own house, where he might, after a long-
er or shorter period, become nationalized,
but where he might also resist in secret.
These problems appear to us to be of
a kind worthy of free, calm discussion,
both at home and outside of our king-
dom. For after our wars shall have
ended gloriously and happily, there will
be damages found among the gains, and
the nations that might not be able to
sell their goods to their former custom-
ers, and might not find themselves wel-
comed by new ones, would complain about
this and would suffer from it. Com-
plaints and suffering would injure the
solidarity of the friendships that we all
wish to preserve intact as a guard
against vigilant enemies 'not disposed to
disarm and to forget.

Britain's Trials to Come

By Dr. Arthur Shadwell

[Published by arrangement with The Nineteenth Century]

Dr. Shadwell takes a very serious view
of the labor troubles which are likely to
follow the war, especially if the British
Nation cannot be aroused to the necessity
of completely defeating the Central Pow-
ers and discrediting the Kaiser's Govern-
ment in the eyes of the German people.
He says in part:

A3 to industrial conditions at home, I
confess that I regard the prospect
with the greatest apprehension; it
is full of menace and I can see no way
out. Every one in a position to judge
with whom I have discussed the subject is
of the same opinion.

In the first place, the whole question of
industrial relations in Great Britain has
a sinister background which seems to be
unknown to the cheery optimists who shout
for an economic war. It is a background
of interrupted strife of the most deter-
mined character, which is only waiting the
conclusion of the war to be resumed with
undiminished ardor. If the war had not

occurred we should before this have wit-
nessed an industrial conflict certainly on
a larger scale and probably more violent
than any known before. The elements not
only remain in full force, but they have
been reinforced by circumstances attend-
ing the war. The trade unions have been
asked to suspend their rules and customs,
and to a very considerable extent, though
not to the extent commonly believed —
they have done so. It is a great sacri-
fice on their part and it deserves full
recognition. One union has been par-
ticularly affected, the Amalgamated So-
ciety of Engineers. A very large pro-
portion of the war work, and especially
the new work, falls within its province,
and it has been invaded by hosts of un-
skilled workers, male and female. The
engineers have acquiesced wth extreme
reluctance, in so far as they have ac-
quiesced; and their reluctance is based
on definite grounds.

Their society was the first of the great

688 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

craft unions to be formed more than half
a century ago, and it has always been a
hight caste, exclusive body, very jealous
of its status. It has maintained the art
and mystery (art et metier) of the trade
as something requiring a long and spe-
cial initiation which raised those who
had passed it above other workmen. And
for the thoroughly skilled mechanic the
claim holds good today. The all-around
British engineer is the best man of his
class that there is. He is better than the
German or the French, and in the United
States he is the best Amercan workman.
But time and change have so altered the
conditions of work that the superiority
of the engineer has become fictitious in
many departments. It has been artifi-
cially maintained, and now the war has
exposed the fiction. Many operations
once jealously confined to the skilled
man have been thrown open, and it has
been proved on a large scale that any-
body can perform them with a few days'
and even a few hours' teaching. It be-
gan with turning and other machine
prr 2esses, and now it has gone on to
hand tools and the high mysteries of
fitting. The thorough mechanic is still
absolutely indispensable — more perhaps
than ever — but he has seen whole fields,
once his own, captured by amateurs; and
this has at the same time revealed the
extent to which limitation of output has
been regularly practiced.

All this has been a great trial, and it
has been accentuated by a glaring in-
equality. Some of the most highly skilled
work cannot be priced because it is too
varied and irregular. It is paid by the
day, and the men doing it have not
shared the enormous increase in earnings
made on piecework. Thus the thorough
mechanic has been getting his 43 shillings
6 pence a week, and has seen the ama-
teur from the grocer's counter, the of-
fice stool, and the cowshed taking twice
and three times as much. This is the
result of the prices fixed for new war
work during the scramble for labor.

The unprecedented earnings in some
trades will themselves be another cause
of trouble peculiar to this country. They
have set a new standard of living which
will not be readily relinquished.

It will be impossible to go back alto-
gether to the old conditions. Some in-
dustries have been revolutionized and
the whole outlook is changed. The read-
justment really requires a corresponding
revision of ideas on the part both of em-
ployer and employed. * * * But what
both sides are contemplating is the old
rut and a battle royal.

We shall go into peace with this pros-
pect of unprecedented industrial turmoil
and strife before us ; and on the top of
that will be all the political strife — home
rule and the rest of it. In other words,
the prospect is civil war, and that with-
out any reference to the real war. But
the termination and result of the latter
will make all the difference. If the war
ends with a changed and chastened Ger-
many, less convinced of her superiority,
less aggressive, less ambitious, more pre-
occupied with setting her own house in
order than with rclans for dominating
her neighbors, we may get through our
troubles. But : f the war ends in a stale-
mate, anc1 leaves Germany with the mili-
tary regime intact, animated with the
same aii.is and ambitions, bent on the
eventual control of the sea and the down-
fall of the British Empire, we shall
surely go down unless we altogether
change our ways. We shall be in no
position to meet the commercial compe-
tition with which she will immediately
proceed to undermine our strength by
means of carefully prepared and method-
ical plans. That is what the Germans
intend, and they are eager for peace in
order to begin. Other competitors, more
formidable than ever, will also have the
advantage of us. Our industrial system
will be in chaos through the mad con'
flict between employers and employed,
and when we emerge it will be too late.
The persons who talk about the economic
war and promise themselves the crush-
ing of German commerce and industry
are like children playing over a rattle-
snake's hole and anticipating the pleas-
ure of pulling it out by the tail.

I think the war will end in an indus-
trial revolution here. The only chance
for us is to see that it also ends in a
moral and political revolution in Ger-
many.

The German Peril After the War

By Archibald Kurd

[By arrangement with The Fortnightly Review]

FTER the war has closed, Germany
will remain in all fundamentals the
Germany which existed before the
war. She will have lost many thousands
of her best manhood, but the population
of Germany increases at the rate of
800,000 a year. She will be burdened
by a great debt, but the Germans are
a frugal people and will bend themselves
to the task of adjusting the balance.
Germany will be suffering from com-
mercial and industrial congestion, owing
to our blockade, but the remedy for the
disease will be a policy of " dumping."
Germany, it may be, will be badly de-
feated, but the 60,000,000 or 70,000,000
people will remain a menace to all
democracies. They have been revealed
as the most exclusive, selfish, and in-
humane people on the face of the globe.
They form part of a soulless machine.

Is it imagined that Germany, when
this war is over, will abandon the eco-
nomic war upon which her business men
had determined when, owing to causes
beyond their control, the Emperor and
his political and military advisers, in
complete confidence that the result would
be as in 1864, 1866, and 1870, determined
to put to the supreme test the vast Ger-
man army and the new German fleet?
The foundations for the economic strug-
gle which had been laid before the present
hostilities broke out are, we need not
doubt, even now being strengthened.
This war with gun, cannon, and bayonet
will leave the German Nation essentially
the same in characteristics that it was
in the early Summer of 1914, but
with its heart blackened and its pas-
sions roused — the cruel, soulless, unmoral
race which this struggle has revealed.
Germany will apply to commerce the
same ruthless, creedless principles which
have been exhibited on land and on sea
during the war — copying in cheap forms
other people's designs, imitating other
people's trade marks, " spying " in
Foreign Offices and factories, " dump-

ing" in distant countries in order to
ruin home industries, strangling decent
trade as a preliminary to extortion.
Germany is organized, from end to end,
for this new war. It is the most highly
organized empire which has ever existed.
On the other hand, the British Empire,
as Sir Robert Borden has said, " is in
some respects a mere disorganization."
It has no economic coherence; its indus-
tries are unrelated to each other.

On the success or failure attending
the attempt to solve the economic prob-
lem which confronts the British people
will depend the future of the British
Empire. As " a mere disorganization,"
it cannot fight successfully a highly
organized German Empire with its rail-
ways, its canals, its ships, its syndicates,
its diplomatists, and its tariff all com-
bined in one effort.

Where, then, do we stand as we con-
front the future? On moral groups
Germany — the land of the Huns tomor-
row as it is today — must be ostracized,
otherwise the precedents of this war —
the murders by submarines, by Zeppelins
and poison gas, and the inhumanities
practiced on prisoners — will become es-
tablished. Punishment must follow such
acts — punishment which will be felt in
the remotest corners of the German
Empire, otherwise the whole human
family will be reduced to Germany's
level and civilization submerged in bar-
barism. The German Empire is a house
of sickness; we must not permit the
infection to reach the British Empire.
A period of isolation must be enforced
on the enemy. On economic grounds
also Germany must be ostracized. We
cannot again expose ourselves to the
dangers of " peaceful penetration " by
an unmoral people, which were so dra-
matically exposed when war broke out.
If we are to save our soul, we must
preserve our body.

We have come to the parting of the

690

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ways. As it has been apparent for
twenty months past that the existing
organization of imperial defense is de-
fective, so it will become increasingly
apparent that the present economic dis-
organization of the empire threatens its
very existence. This war concluded we
must be prepared to wage successfully
the economic war — reforming our system
of education, co-ordinating science and
industry, reorganizing our trades, read-
justing the tariffs of the empire, pro-
tecting our merchant navy from un-

scrupulous competition, and regulariz-
ing and developing our arrangements for
defense by land as by sea. The op-
portunity offering when the present
struggle is at an end will never recur.
Our moral sense demands that Germany,
having placed herself without the pale,
shall be kept there until she has ex-
piated her crimes and regained her
sanity. That interval will enable us to
complete the task which lies before us
of converting the British Empire into a
benign civilizing and economic unit.

Helfferich on Post-Bellum Trade

By Franz Hugo Krebs

Mr. Krebs, an American business man, took occasion, during a recent visit to Berlin, to
submit to Dr. Karl Helfferich, then Imperial Secretary of the Treasury, certain questions
which had been suggested by American financiers and members of leading bond houses. The
result is the series of interesting answers given below.

THE first question that Dr. Helfferich
took up was the following:

" What does the opening of the
way through the Balkans to Constan-
tinople mean to Germany and to Austria-
Hungary, and what does it mean to Bul-
garia and Turkey? " When a member
of the Managing Board of the Deutsche
Bank, Dr. Helfferich devoted his activi-
ties especially to Turkish financing, so
this question probably made an unusual
appeal to him. He said:

" Apart from military value, which
every one understands, it brings together
the West and the Near East. First, it
restores direct communication down the
Danube to the Black Sea; that is, from
Germany to Bulgaria and Turkey, with
no enemy State interfering with the
traffic. The cost of carriage by water
being cheap, facilities are afforded for
German and Austro-Hungarian exports
to Bulgaria and Turkey, and, vice versa,
from Bulgaria and Turkey to Austria-
Hungary and Germany.

" Of course, for Germany it is econom-
ically of great importance to get raw
material, such as grain and fodder, from
Bulgaria, and cotton, fruit, copper, to-
bacco, and wool from Turkey. Incidental-
ly, the menace of Serbia to traffic on
the Danube has now been removed.

" All markets concerned have been
brought closer together; also, political
relations at a time like this have more
or less effect on trade. In many ways
Germany will give Turkey the benefit of
the most up-to-date advice that scientific
research enables us to offer; particularly
will this be done regarding agricultural
methods. Already Bulgarian and Turk-
ish exports to Austria-Hungary and
Germany have increased enormously.
The railway carries through Bulgaria
high-class goods, but in peace times the
sea route would be the cheaper for bulky
goods going to Turkey. As for the effect
on Bulgaria and Turkey, by increasing
their trade and economic strength these
countries will also increase their financial
strength."

The next question that Dr. Helfferich
answered was:

" What is the condition cf German
savings banks?" He said:

" The deposits in German savings
banks are now as large as they were
before the last war loan was paid for
and issued. They had a greater number
of deposits in 1915 than in 1914. Of
course, this condition is wholly due to
the patriotic spirit of the German peo-
ple."

Another question attracted Dr. Helf-

HELFFERICH ON POST-BELLUM TRADE

691

ferich's attention — " Why is Germany
coining iron money for its subsidiary
coinage? "

" German currency is being used in
all the territory that is now occupied by
the German troops," he replied, " and
this makes a sudden and tremendous de-
mand that it is hard to fill, and, as
nickel is used for military purposes, iron
has been decided on as a convenient sub-
stitute."

Then came the questions, " Why has
the price of the mark in the neutral
countries fallen? Is it due to inflation?"

" No, it is not due to inflation," said
Dr. Helfferich. " Cut off from export-
ing, we have been obliged to settle al-
most everything by cash payments. We
have preferred to increase, as far as
possible, our gold reserves, and have
made certain sacrifices in order to main-
tain the strength of our financial posi-
tion."

Dr. Helfferich read with apparent in-
terest the following, contained in a letter
sent me by a gentleman connected with
the largest distributing bond house in the
United States:

" It would be of great interest to know
the feeling of the German multitude as
contrasted with the Prussian aristo-
crats"; also this question, propounded
by the partner of a large Boston bond
house:

" Are the masses of the Socialists pre-
pared to support a war of conquest? "
He( said very earnestly:

" There is no conflicting ambition here,
no wide divergence in thought. This war
was forced upon us. We have, up to
now, as you Americans say, ' made good.'
There is no doubt of our ability to con-
tinue along the same lines.

" We desired, before the war, to be
allowed to develop along our own lines
without being menaced by neighbors who

are neither willing to try to understand
us nor to emulate our thrift and devotion
to our work. In the Reichstag, early in
the war, the Emperor said he recognized
'no parties, only Germans,' and every
German, regardless of previous political
affiliations, has cheerfully forgotten all
differences in his loyal desire to serve
best the general weal.

" The commercial relations of Ger-
many and the United States have been
very close 'in the past, and will doubt-
less be even closer after the war is over.
Then Germany will be in the market for
many things that will at least make us
one of your country's best customers, as
we always have been.

"Then, no doubt, our relations will
be more direct than ever before, since up
to now a large part of the business trans-
acted between the United States and Ger-
many was negotiated through Great
Britain. Great Britain has lost — certain-
ly with the Central Powers, and, I ven-
ture to say, more or less with the whole
world — its standing as the world's com-
r .ercial agent. Who in the future, unless
compelled to do so, will intrust goods and
securities to Great Britain, which, in
violation of international law, began by
confiscating privately owned goods and
securities ? Also, what happened to pri-
vate individuals of German nationality in
Great Britain during this war may be in-
flicted on the citizens of any other nation
in some future war.

" Great Britain itself has done away
with the words ' Safe as the Bank of
England.' After the war the direct trans-
action of business between the United
States and Germany will, no doubt, be
greatly facilitated by the recent Amer-
ican bank reform, built up on the most
excellent principles, which will - enable
your country to finance the world's com-
merce in a manner worthy of the United
States."

The British Protectionists^

By Arnold Bennett

Famous English Novelist

NOTHING can be clearer than that
before the war Germany was beat-
ing us in trade. And she was
beating us more and more. And she
was beating us, not by reason of any in-
herent advantages, but by reason of a
closer application, a fiercer industry,
a keener interest in and appreciation
of the commercial value of education —
and technical education in particular.
We shall, unless sentimentalism gets
quite rampant, certainly defeat Germany
in war, and the cry naturally and prop-
erly came that we must capture Ger-
many's trade. It is true that at present,
while instead of capturing foreign trade
we are steadily losing our own, such a
cry had an odd, wistful sound; but it was
a good cry, a cry which rightly appealed
to all of us.

Our course, if we had learned the
supreme lesson of the war, was evi-
dently to bestir ourselves about educa-
tion, and especially about technical ed-
ucation, to preach application and close
industry and organization and thrift to
ourselves. Have we done it? Have we
begun to do it? Not at all. On the con-
trary, we are so far from " realizing "
the war (in the deepest sense) that the
reactionary and stupid wing of the oli-
garchy has knocked the other wing all to
bits. Education is being starved, and
universities which specialized in techni-
cal education and organization, instead
of being honored and aggrandized, are
fighting for their lives while as little
money as might keep the war going for
twelve hours would suffice to render them
the most potent creators of strength for
the future. The fact is that we are not
only clinging to luxury and relaxation,
but doing much to emphasize the pro-

found defects in ourselves which the war
has revealed.

' The sentimentalist-protectionists as-
sert that we shall not want to have any
relations, even commercial relations, with
Germany after the war. There is some-
thing in this idea. It calls forth sym-
pathy from every one of us. It is not
business, but, after all, business is not
the highest good.

And yet I wonder whether, after the
war, the instinct not to soil themselves
by any contact with Germany will be
powerful enough to prevent our senti-
mentalist-protectionists from endeavor-
ing to sell British goods to Germany in
exchange for German goods! I wonder!
And I wonder whether, anyhow, the fact
of war increases the wisdom of the dodge
of cutting off your nose to spite your
face. I do not wonder whether protec-
tion, instituted on the plea of patriotism,
will enrich the few rich at the expense of
the multitudinous poor. I know positive-
ly that it will. And I know that protec-
tion will foster instead of stamping out
inefficiency. And I know, too, that to
attempt to settle international relations
in the midst of a war, when passion
necessarily blinds reason, and when the
future cannot be accurately envisaged, is
an extreme kind of folly. But the at-
tempt is being made. The campaign is
afoot. Much money is being spent on it.
Many dinners are being eaten about it.
Hope is high in the bosoms of those as-
tute sentimentalists who see great profit
in the too facile exploitation of the baser
and more blithering forms of jingoism
and chauvinism. For among our senti-
mentalists are some who know on which
side their bread is buttered. The rest
do not.

"If I Were Wilson"

Listen, Mankind, to the Message of a Man

By Maximilian Harden

German Publicist, Editor of Die Zukunft, Berlin

The remarkable article, all of whose more significant passages are here translated in full,
occupied the entire April 22 issue of Die Zukunft. In spite of its criticisms of German policy,
it was allowed to appear at the moment when the submarine controversy with the United
States was most acute.

[PRESIDENT WILSON Is SUPPOSED TO BE SPEAKING TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT]

WE Americans, who in spite of, or
because of, our relationship
are always on the lookout
against English arrogance —
we find England's idea of an " effective
blockade " unsatisfactory. But we have
much more to com-
plain of than Eng-
land's action. That
she cuts' off our trade
with Europe and as-
serts h' / right of
search and seizure is
an offense we might
have punished long
ago if Germany had
not been doing us a
wrong, for almost a.
year, that affects us
far more deeply — by
the murder of Amer- ^
ican citizens. The sor- g*
row of the widowed,
of the orphaned, of
mourning parents
cries more loudly to
heaven than the loss
of merchantmen. And
yet the manner in
which England uses
her blockading power
is irreconcilable with international law.

This law is not a feeble concatenation
of letters, it was not intended for the
time when the nations were living at
peace among themselves, and it is not
invalidated by the discovery of new
means of warfare. " In the time of war
the laws are silent, but only those of
trade and those which might be followed

MAXIMILIAN HARDEN

in peace by foreign courts of justice; not
the eternal laws, valid for every age.
The possibility of suffering outrage never
gives a State the right to use outrage
itself." These sentences of the Dutch-
man, Hugo Grotius, are pillars on which
our conviction rests
firm.

THE LAW OF

NATIONS
We share no guilt
for the outbreak of
the war, and we can
get nothing out of it.
We put up with the
fact that under its
reign of terror our
exports and imports
are shrinking; we
cannot endure that
they should be alto-
gether arrested, that
our cotton market
should be laid deso-
late, our agriculture
deprived of potash,
and our textile manu-
factures arbitrarily
deprived of coal-tar
dyes. Still less that
deadly peril should be
prepared by act of men for our citizens
on roads which they have a right to use.
Such roads are the great waterways be-
tween continents. To cut off principal
portions of such roads by a bare one-
sided proclamation, and call them " war
areas," and to rob and kill any one who
ventures in them, is not permitted any
one either by the letter or by the spirit

694 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

of any international law. It is a legal
fiction, a legal pretension, to which we
will not bow. And which we may the less
expect, in that we have generously given
up hitherto to European hands our whole
trade with Europe, which supports in
opulence a dozen merchant fleets and
gives life to tens of thousands of em-
ployes, contractors, and actionaries.

Because England is not to receive corn,
meat, textile fabrics, copper, steel, ex-
plosives, petroleum, and fat, and Eng-
land's enemy has no means allowed by
international law, no means by which
she is able to give a warning recognizable
at a distance, of cutting off the importa-
tion of these goods, because of this fact,
is it permitted to a crawler along the bot-
tom of the sea to destroy every ship sus-
pected of carrying such goods, together
with crew and its passengers? It would
be just as incoherent a law which would
allow it to be announced to our world to-
morrow that Spain was to be consictered
as a war area, because France was able
to get goods from her, or that Sweden
was to be considered such because Russia
could get goods from her, and permitted
German airships to throw bombs on every
railway train which they could see in
these countries; because every one is
under suspicion of supplying essential
materials for French and Russian eco-
nomic, or even military, needs.

The submarine war does not violate
any of the sovereign rights of any State ;
but day by day it violates the rights of
men and nations. It cannot but violate
them if it is not confined to warships.
For since a usage, unfortunately still
valid, allows the carrying of false flags,
every ship sailing under a neutral flag
may possibly be the property of the
enemy; whether a merchantman has two
or three guns cannot be recognized from
a submarine; and the mines which these
boats strew in the sea do not ask whether
it is an enemy or a neutral ship which
they blow to atoms; for this reason the
;. promise of protecting neutral and un-
armed ships, of warning them, or calling
to them, or saving crew and passengers
before firing into them, is one which
with the best will in the world cannot
be kept.

CRUX OF THE DISPUTE
Nevertheless, since the horrible end of
the Lusitania — the anniversary of which
is just approaching — the German- Amer-
ican dispute has turned round this ques-
tion. It has been doubly envenomed.
Many factories of our States have pro-
vided the British, French, and the Rus-
sians with guns, shells, and war material
of every kind. They had a right to do
this ; and it was not their fault that Ger-
many, whose custom would have been
equally welcome to them, was unable to
buy anything from them on account of
the blockade.

In all wars of modern times German
industry, in spite of the empire's neu-
trality, has supplied one party, often both
parties, with arms and munitions; if she
had not done this — so said the Berlin
Government — her industrial capabilities
must have shown a swift decline. What
was allowed to her to an unlimited extent
cannot be prohibited to the industry of
America. The statistics as to material
delivered have been enormously exag-
gerated, and everything produced in
South America and in the Englih_i colony
of Canada has been reckoned to us as
well. The entirely private contracting
business, the extent of which is scarcely
worth talking about, could only have been
prevented by the State by means of an
export prohibition. I have declined to
demand this from Congress; and not
merely because I was certain that Con-
gress would refuse it. We do not desire
that any State should be compelled to ac-
cumulate arms in the time of peace; for
this very accumulation is a temptation
to settle any dispute by war. We do no*
desire that a power armed to the teeth
should be in a position to impose its will
on a badly armed one to which neutral
countries close their sources of supply;
for we earnestly hope to see an extension
of arbitration and an organized peace,
not industriously and artificially organ-
ized force.

We do not desire a condition of law
which, should we be compelled to go to
war,, must prevent us from buying weap-
ons from neutral countries — weapons
which we peaceful farmers, traders, pro-
fessors, and artists lack. For a hundred

"IF I WERE WILSON"

695

years England has not been prepared for
a land war of European dimensions; to
have left her without arms in the difficult
opening stages of a struggle which had
no increase of territory for its aim would
have gone, we felt, against the nature of
free, peaceful America, nay, against the
spirit of modern humanity as well. The
merchants, manufacturers, and adminis-
trators of the United States acted within
their sure and incontestable rights. But
their doing so drew upon them the bitter
anger of the Germans, even of those who
had been admitted as friends into our
free States.

MUNITION PLOTS
From their error arose the second ele-
ment of poison. Many of them believed
it their duty to avenge on their new home
a wrong committed on their Fatherland,
and to tear our States asunder. The
proofs of such punishable behavior, or of
its encouragement, lie in our archives.
We had done no wrong to the German
Empire, and we demand from each immi-
grant that he shall carefully respect the
laws of the States. Why did he come
here? Why, because at some time in his
life the laws and the business prospects
of our country seemed more favorable
than his own. If he wished to remain in
every fibre of his being a German or an
Irishman, to plunge under all conditions
into activities for his native land, he
should have stayed at home and endured
unfavorable conditions of life and co-
operated for the improvement of the po-
litical and social system. To pick and
choose all the tasty morsels from our
country, and at the first storm to behave
as a raging German or furious Irishman
— that would be an intolerable piece of
presumption. To give examples of what
has happened would only stir up the
flames which I would gladly see die down.
For this reason I will only ask, Would
Germany, during the Manchurian war,
have allowed Japanese agents to work
upon the Prussian Poles, to intimidate
the German Empire into alienation from
Russia by stirring up disturbances, by
canvassing, by fiery speeches, by imperil-
ing munition factories? And I would
ask, too, Has not our legal contention
been all through as good as the Germans'?

TO GERMAN-AMERICANS
I understand that to a nation fighting
in peril of its life such cool reflection on
real values is difficult, that under pres-
sure of necessity it forgets how often it
has itself supplied the enemies of its
friends with arms and munitions. Yet I
must demand from Germany that she
shall break loose from any common action
with injudicious patriots, however strong-
ly her sympathies with them may be —
for patriots who, as guests, or as admit-
ted citizens of the United States, misuse
the law of hospitality to undermine the
civil peace; by which action they do not
benefit the German Empire, they only
greatly injure it.

No serious man blames them for wish-
ing Germany to gain the victory, for
helping it by works of charity. But no
man favorable to his Fatherland can al-
low them to hoist their three-colored flag
over our Star-Spangled Banner, to make
our domestic political institutions an in-
strument in their campaign for German-
ism and to append to their vote, which
their second home has given them, the
condition that the elected candidate shall
pledge himself to help forward their Ger-
man cause.

I am bound, secondly, to demand from
Germany that she shall without circum-
locution declare how she proposes hence-
forward to respect our national law and
to protect the life and property of the
American citizens. How she can protect;
for the question whether there is to be
friendship or hostility between two great
nations certain of their future can no
longer depend upon the eyelashes and
nerves of a young submarine command-
er anxious to serve his Fatherland and
cut his name in the German oak, and
in whose ear conscience speaks only
one command: Sink everything in
sight!

U-BOATS AS CORSAIRS

Every one must admire the bold cun-
ning of such men. Their boats, however,
have no surer position in international
law than the corsair frigates which in the
twenty years of the Anglo-French war,
especially during the Continental block-
ade against England, used to creep out

696 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

secretly from the small harbors of Flan-
ders, Normandy, and Brittany and rob
the Britons of 500 merchant ships every
year. Today, 100 years after the Napo-
leon frigate war, in spite of the confer-
ences at The Hague (1907) and in Lon-
don, (1909,) we have no valid interna-
tional maritime law under the protection
of an arbitrating authority with execu-
tive power. Yet the dictates of recog-
nized morality, which, for example, does
not give the right of sacrificing the lives
of ten strangers to save one's own child,
and the experiences gained hitherto in
submarine warfare show the way to an
understanding which would leave elbow
room for both States.

Compromise would signify weakness
on neither side; it would merely give ex-
pression to the honest wish to safeguard
friendly intercourse between two nations
which are not forced into hostility by any
insurmountable reason. The hope to
frighten by threats a nation so brave and
so strong as the German would be absurd
and vain. Moreover, it is generally
known in Germany, and it is also known
to those responsible for her government,
what would be the consequences of a
rupture. Our whole continent, north and
south, would become hostile to Germany,
and that not merely for the period of the
war. Germany would lose all her ships
lying in American ports, and would have
to reckon them a considerable addition to
enemy tonnage.

From the day of the rupture Germany
would have to provision Belgium, which
we are now supplying with foodstuffs.
Holland and Scandinavia could hardly
hope any longer for imports from over-
seas; for this reason they could not ex-
port any more goods, cattle, or grain,
since by doing so they would be in danger
of suffering scarcity themselves. It is
for Germany only to examine, on the
basis of what the Napoleonic blockade
achieved and what the power of a league
may be which America would join with
her capital and economic resources,
whether it would be wise to pay so high
a price for the weakening of England
through scarcity of food and tonnage.

It is certain that the conclusion of the
war would then be put far out of sight,

because, even if badly weakened, the
enemies of Germany could wait until our
help made itself felt. And, further, from
that moment we, too, should present at
home an absolutely united front. The
different extractions, German, Irish,
Austrian, or Hungarian, would be at once
forgotten, and every American would be "
wedded to the Stars and Stripes; and he
who was yesterday disloyal at heart
would tomorrow become a zealous, glow-
ing patriot.

We have not let our tongues run furi-
ously about Belgium, because our purse
had to secure her food, and this was pos-
sible only by an understanding with the
German authorities. We have not taken
exception to the procrastination in the
dispute pending between Germany and
ourselves, because in almost all cases
facts could not be ascertained beyond
dispute; further, because we were re-
strained by the wish to spare the world
the horrors of an unrestrained submarine
warfare and spare the neutral States of
Western Europe the pain and misery
which would be the effects of such a war;
because the Berlin Government gave us
the clear proofs of an honest will to reach
an understanding, and did not hesitate to
remove a vigorous statesman, highly
esteemed by many, in order that in future
only one tendency expressive of will
should rule its policy; because we under-
stand the enormous difficulty of her re-
sponsible action and could not expect the
second Winter of war to give birth to the
decision which is to be the goal of the
Spring of peace, viz., to put diplomacy
above strategy and to establish firmly
the higher authority of the council of
statesmen over every irruption or inter-
ference of those brought up for the work
of war.

CONCERNING PEACE

If this higher authority was already
secured, we would not have today a war
which is the horror, and, in spite of all
the virtues which it brings forth every
day, the disgrace of the white race. Is
it any good to dig for its roots once more
in the soil washed by seas of blood and
riddled by the worms feeding on corpses?
All are guilty; the difference is only in

"IF I WERE WILSON

697

the weight and time of their sins. This
fact is not discerned by him whose eyes
are darkened by his own guilt. It is hid-
den also from him who sees only what
gave the last push and judges hastily,
without following up or weighing the
long chain of causes : " Germany abruptly
refused the arbitration which was recom-
mended by all the powers for the settle-
ment of the Austro-Serbian dispute and
which was finally accepted by Austria-
Hungary itself; she began the war, which,
according to the undisputed testimony of
San Giuliano and Giolitti, she had wanted
as early as 1913; she wantonly violated
the neutrality of Belgium, which origi-
nally she herself had demanded, carried
through, and guaranteed, and, after a
rapid and devastating invasion, seized a
powerful pledge in the shape of the in-
dustrial districts of France. She has,
therefore, to be declared guilty without
admission of any extenuating circum-
stances. This is the conclusion formed
from a comparison of all the official doc-
uments."

FRENCH AND GERMAN AIMS

Th.^t this is the conclusion indeed has
been proved a thousand times in all lan-
guages, even by the men of science with
tempers of ice. Only they forgot to turn
over the leaves of the book of the history
which came before the month of July,
1914. France could not get over the loss
of Sedan, Metz, and Strassburg; she did
not set the loss to the account of the
accursed empire, nor did she decide on a
new war, but she irritated by continu-
ous, sometimes noisy, threats of "re-
vanche " the conqueror of 1870, who did
not wish to take from her a single straw
or a single stone more, and gladly al-
lowed her to acquire the second biggest
colonial empire, and she offered her alli-
ance to any one with the help of whose
word she could hope to reconquer Alsace
and German Lorraine. The wire which
unites France to the Russian Empire
would have been made fast much earlier
if Bismarck had not, even as an old man,
climbed again and again untiringly the
pole and broken the strands.

After thirty years of grace, Germany
is no longer served by an unselfish
genius, but she has acquired, through the

unsurpassed arid unsurpassable efficiency
of her people, undreamed wealth, and has
secured for herself an enormous share in
the trade of the world. In all zones Ger-
mans make themselves snug and work
diligently, more diligently than any of
their competitors, for the capital and flag
of their Fatherland. Germany does not,
unfortunately, remember that she can
only win forgiveness for so rapid a rise,
for so unexampled and flourishing suc-
cess in every branch of activity, by a
dignified and modest self -suppression;
and she does not remember that the ene-
mies at whose expense she has grown
great are still alive, and some of them
are still full of fight. She rattles the
sword, and in shining armor she fre-
quently allows to transpire the intention
of enlarging her dominion. * * *
OFFENSIVE DEFENSE

A preventive war, then? The classical
case. Two groups of powers which do
not trust each other across the street.
France fears that she may be attacked
and treated as a hostage, Russia that she
may be cut off from an ice- free sea for
another hundred years. England has
bound herself to take no share in any
aggressive war against Germany, but
has not, as was desired in Berlin, prom-
ised her neutrality in any war " forced
upon " the German Empire ; for it could
not but apprehend that any war pro-
voked by aggressiveness would appear to
be " forced upon " those suffering by it.
Germany did not want to be boxed in, nor
to give the right of arbitration to a hos-
tile majority, nor to allow herself to be
weakened by the dismemberment, at-
tempted from three quarters, of Austria.

It is a libel upon Germany to say that
it chose war not as a necessary measure
of defense, (Nothwehr,) but as a means
of conquest. Only a madman could desire
such a war, of issues impossible to fore-
cast, and from which no gain could be
garnered in the long run. It is just as
false, indeed, to assume that England,
France, and Russia, which were not
armed at all, or at best only half ready,
(and needed a year to obtain the most
necessary things,) started with the delib-
erate intent to attack. They desired a
diplomatic, not a military, struggle, and

698

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

strained every nerve to avoid immediate
war. The outbreak, however, was not to
be prevented; because, at the decisive
moment, the will of the military chiefs
was more powerful than that of the
statesmen. To the military authorities
Bismarck's advice, " In preparation for
war always remain one step behind your
adversary," was counted mere talk, with
which a cunning drafter of notes wished
to thrust his clumsy hand into the rough
work of warriors. When Mars rules,
think they, only their expert opinion is of
consequence, and only they can judge
when this crimson regime is to be-
gin. * * *

HOW MILITARISM GROWS
The state of affairs which gives prece-
dence to such thoughts in every higher
circle of communal life is called in mod-
ern speech " militarism." It does not
only press for ever more powerful arma-
ments, but it also accustoms citizens,
scholars, merchants, and artists to the
idea that for a struggle between peoples
the only adequate weapon is armed con-
flict, and that everything else is un-
worthy and useless. In this way it per-
meates every root and every branch and
twig of the nation. Militarism is a state
of mind and a form of civilization. That
without its existence heroism and the
warlike virtues can thrive, a single
glance at England and France, at the
two Serbian States, at Hungary, at
Austria, at Australia and Canada, shows.
That militarism alone can guarantee con-
stant readiness of every limb of the body
politic for the rapid transition to war is
proved by Germany's achievement, which
is unequaled in the history of the world.
That is, in the material sphere; as a
spiritual achievement many will place
higher the voluntary enlistment of three
million island and colonial Englishmen,
the heroic endurance and self-sacrifice of
the Serbians and the French, fighting in
the very face of the enemy. Twenty
million heroes are fighting between Ant-
werp and Trebizond, and the majority
grew up in unmilitary countries — yes, in
some which seemed to have succumbed
to the plague of luxury.

NO ARMED TRUCE
Because militarism facilitates readi-

ness for and temptation to war, and be-
cause it can only spread further and fur-
ther unless weeded out root and branch,
the war must endure until it is destroyed.
This slogan is proclaimed aloud by all
the enemies of the German Empire, and
is whispered by all neutrals. How long
only by them? After the inconceivably
horrible slaughter of which today at least
five million corpses and ten million crip-
ples are evidence, the cry for the sure
establishing of peace will, even between
Hamburg and Bagdad, drown every other.

Is the uprooting of militarism possi-
ble? To my mind, yes; an inevitable cer-
tainty. Its approach has been merely re-
tarded by the foolish attempt to cut from
the body of a State a portion which is
indispensable to its vital functions or for
its self-respect. From the first day of
peace onward this State would be com-
pelled to make every sacrifice in blood
and money to attain the re-establishment
of its constitution and its prestige.
Think, Grey, Briand, Sazonoff, through
what thunderclouds and what pressure of
misery you would have to pine if this
mutilated power were immortal Ger nany,
compelled to gather together all the ener-
gies of mind and economic strength for
the bursting of the barrier erected before
its house, and for the chastisement of
impious excess! But, Bethmann and
Burian, do not forget that those who pine
are more sensitive than giants, and that
Serbia itself has once already risen from
the moldy tombs in which it seemed to be
inclosed!

A peace which, like a war, left crippled
peoples behind it, would only mean a
truce. And we do not desire a peace that
is a truce, but a truce which will give rise
to a firm and noble peace, to Europe's
Easter. We wish it today because today
it is possible and therefore necessary.
We: all who are not blinded by irrational
rage, whose numbers grow every day in
multitude and with whom in both camps,
man for man, the dead agree.

NOT LIKE OTHER WARS

Those only stand far off who imagine
that this, war is essentially like other
wars, and might — indeed must, like
other wars — end in victory and defeat,
treaty and indemnity. Those upon whom

"IF I WERE WILSON

699

the realization has not yet dawned that
this war's most certain consequence — its
only certain consequence — will be the
most gigantic revolution of all times, a
revolution that penetrates the whole of
Europe with its flame, that plows up the
whole continent, beside which the revo-
lutions of 1789 and 1793 might seem petty
child's play, and that every man of good-
will and natural piety must exert himself
fervently to keep this revolution clear of
blood guilt and confine it to the world of
the spirit.

No State, no people, no class, neither
man nor woman, will after this war% this
cataclysm, be as they were before. Con-
stitutions and laws, prejudices and scru-
ples, will lie prone before the whirlwind,
like reeds in a pool. Let us take care that,
from the altar of the new league — the
league of humanity with divinely inspired
nature — a grateful odor shall be wafted
heavenward, as from Noah's thank-offer-
ing when his second dove had brought
him the olive branch in its bill, while
the message of " Peace on earth ! " was
written shimmering across the sky.

FOR AN ARMISTICE

An armistice is possible. Nothing in-
dispensable remains to be conquered;
nothing that would sufficiently reward
the effort involved. The aim and result
of that effort can only be the ventilation,
cleansing, disinfecting, the hallowing
without priest or dogma, of the Conti-
nent; the transformation of swampy,
moldy, hate-befogged, envy-poisoned
ground into the luminous abode of free
men, working on the basis of their own
right, and consequently respecting that
of others — men who, just because they
are strong and proud of their reason,
cannot but affirm their will to select in
peaceful ways the fittest, whether among
individuals or peoples. The wolf will not
graze beside the lamb, nor the lion run
with the hare. But the form of war and
other horrors will be radically altered, as
after the first deluge when the curse and
condemnation of all living things was
lifted from the earth, and the rainbow
bridged over the chasm between godhood
and beasthood.

This hope does not appeal to you?

You want vengeance, retribution, the
chastisement, the annihilation of the
enemy? Woe to you if it should be left
to the wrath of the people to drive their
rulers and governors out of the thorny
entanglements of such illusions! Only
at the cost of its own enervation can one
group so crush the other to earth. And
behind the melancholy monument of such
a universally destructive victory militar-
ism would rear itself more menacingly
aloft. Now it may be rooted out from
the field on which honor has been main-
tained and power demonstrated, but the
decisive battle has not been fought. Now
the power which received it as an heir-
loom from the soldier-King Frederick
(the Great) then let it rust and only
polished it up again under the lash of
Bonaparte, that power can now, without
inward or outward impoverishment, lay
it to rest.

DAWN OF A NEW DAY

The dawn of rejuvenated humanity!
It breathes afresh. Let reason at last
get in a word again, and shame spread a
thick veil over self-deification and enemy
bedevilment. Who would bet that, if
any of the buds of hope failed of ma-
turity, were nipped of frost, humanity
would not again resolve to pass from
armistice into a state of war? What
profit could war bring? To the French,
Alsace-Lorraine and the Cameroons; to
the Germans, Courland and Polish and
Lithuanian territory; to the Austro-Hun-
garians, Serbia, Montenegro, Northern
Albania! That would mean, instead of
establishing peace, sowing the seeds of
new wars; to say nothing of disruptive
domestic dissensions. To what European
State, during the last century, has the
incorporation of foreign populations
brought any appreciable gain? To Rus-
sia, Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands,
the German Empire? To none of them!
The Savoyards and the people of the
Maritime Alps were already half French,
and, like most of those living by work for
the foreigners, remote from the storms
of national feeling. Annexation has long
been recognized by the far-sighted as a
form of the extension of power not to
be reconciled with European custom.
Nothing is easier than to proclaim an-

700 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

nexation; but if the morsel, once swal-
lowed, proves indigestible, and the swal-
lower would willingly spit it out, yet
honor commands him to retain it, and,
even at the risk of his life, to protect it
against greedy enemies.

LEAGUE FOR PEACE

The eye of my spirit looks forward to
the time when States shall league them-
selves in a community of interests, pass
from pooling to fusion, and, to save ex-
penses, merge two official staffs into one.
For the present that is only to be thought
of as between different sections of one
national organism. But the more sterile,
in the days of electric trunk lines and in-
ternational legality, the idea of frontiers
becomes, and the more solid the unity of
Europe, will it not hold good, too, as be-
tween Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg,
between Spain and Portugal, between the
Scandinavian kingdoms, between the Bal-
tic provinces from Riga to Finnish Tor-
nea, between two or three Balkan States?
The new form of annexation, which opens
to the stronger State the channel of in-
fluence, and spares the feelings of the
weaker, will certainly be in process of
casting tomorrow. And, as (since the
war has broken down all dams the flood
of democracy is unrestrainable) the hour
cannot be very distant in which even
great powers shall unite in defensive as-
sociations, and, after amalgamating their
steamship lines, both for freight and pas-
senger traffic, shall maintain only a fleet
of cruisers, a submarine squadron, and a
standing army. Why not, since even to-
day they cannot take from each other any
possession of enduring worth, and the
day after tomorrow, at latest, the un-
muzzled populace will forbid them even to
wish to do so? Hearken to the voice of
the fleeting hours! At their bidding, if
madness no longer howls them down,
greater miracles than this will come to
birth.

COUNTING THE COST

Twenty-one months of war have cost
from 100,000,000,000 to 120,000,000,000
marks; to that are to be added the costs
of restoration and the burden of main-
taining disabled soldiers and their de-
pendents. A bare indemnity, which in
respect to such sums would look like not

more than the mushroom at the foot of
the giant beech tree, even the victor in
the height of his triumph cannot hope to
obtain. And tribute wrung out by a mili-
tary occupation protracted beyond the
lustrum, the decade, was a possibility in
the time of Rome's glory and fall, but to-
day is as little a possibility as that forci-
ble deportation of whole tribes and peo-
ples of which many dream. No State
that has been involved in the deluge can
look for any other indemnification but
that which it creates by its own economics.

Any great power which abridges its
annual expenditure on land and sea de-
fenses by 1,000,000,000 marks may hope
after a generation to see again the first
dawn of financial regularity. And what
will become of debts and liabilities? Be-
cause what is gained by saving suffices
at the most to cover to a tolerable extent
the new needs which are the legacy of
the war. Taxes and customs duties,
which brought in were it only an equiva-
lent of the interest of the tenth billion of
debt, would cripple industry and com-
merce in the competition with our conti-
nent, with Australia and the yellow
world, would break up the idea of prop-
erty, and drive the moderately well to
do, from the fear of confiscations, into
neutral States of sound financial con-
stituation, and stamp out the courage
for far-reaching enterprises as a horse
crushes a rose leaf. Money does not grow
like grass. What, then, is to happen ?
ATONEMENT BY DEBT

What has never happened before any-
where on earth. Nothing save new
thoughts, no sere and yellowing ones,
opens the drain vent of the abyss. After
the first deluge Noah kept himself by the
cultivation of the vine. Just as his son
Ham, because he despised the uncovered
shame of the drunken vintager and told
his brothers, was laid under the curse of
being the servant of all servants, so the
old continent would come under the curse
of servitude to the younger continent if
its humanity did not speedily succeed in
covering the exposed shame of their
racial breeds with the mantle of brother-
hood. Let Europe's war debt become a
fund of atonement. Let the loan coupons
in all the European States which have

IF I WERE WILSON"

701

participated in the war (and in those
ready to recognize the principle of arbi-
tration) be valid money, guaranteed by
all the debtors, not a currency which can
be rendered worthless by dissoluteness
and fraud like the assignats of the
Jacobin Convention and the French
Directorate. Money which in every
country subject to the authority of the
court of arbitration must be taken at
every counter by every creditor at its
full face value. For how long ? Till
those weakened by the war can redeem
the international currency with national

metal or paper. In forty years at the
earliest, in sixty years at the longest,
after the conclusion of peace. The
International Court of Justice admin-
isters the fund and sets aside in equal
portions from the contributions of all
the States what it needs for itself
and its militia. It has to punish the
party disobedient to its verdict by the in-
fliction of a money penalty, and invali-
date, call in, destroy, all the current loan
coupons of any State which, without be-
ing threatened in life and limb, breaks
the peace.

Are Americans Fair to Germany?

By Gottlieb von Jagow

German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
[A protest made through a Berlin correspondent of The New York Times]

TTWERY American newspaper represen-
PJ tative tells us how anxious the Amer-
ican public is to get the news, the
real truth about the war, and yet when
the Imperial Government offered to let
American newspaper men use the cable
in the event of its being reopened, and
also to allow the news sent to the Amer-
ican press to go out uncensored, as long
as it was not prejudicial to the German
military plan of campaign, it hardly
made a ripple among your news-loving
people.

The Imperial Government offered to
pay the entire cost of repairing the cable
and putting it into commission, and was
willing that President Wilson should ap-
point censors at the American end of the
cable in order to supervise all messages
transmitted.

When our Zeppelins attack London,
which is a fortified city defended with
cannon, full of soldiers and prepared as
far as it can be to resist attack by land
or air, the American papers teem with
the most vitriolic articles about the
" Huns." When the airmen of the Allies
attack absolutely unprotected German
towns and villages without one cannon
or one soldier in them and kill old men,
women, and children, your papers are

either silent or else they give a carefully
expurgated account, without bitter criti-
cism therein, and, much more significant,
the letters which appear in the American
newspapers, signed by readers of the
papers, exhibit (in the main) only horror
at our legitimate aerial warfare and none
at the entirely unjustifiable conduct of
our opponents.

Also by prohibiting absolutely the im-
portation of fodder necessary to enable
our cows to furnish milk of a good qual-
ity Great Britain is warring on the little
children of Germany, and when philan-
thropic people in the United States, who
wish to help the children, desire to ship
milk for their use, Great Britain inter-
poses its sea veto. Our children are fully
as dear to us as the children of Ameri-
cans are to them. What do the press and
the people of the United States really
think of a warfare directed against little
children?

Further, what do Americans think of
the British practically forcing the Dutch
steamers going to and coming from
America to make Falmouth a " port of
call " and then claiming the right to
rifle the first-class mail on the ground
that a British port is made a port of call?

We are not unmindful of our good

702

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

friends in the United States, millions of
whom are not of German descent, neither
are we ungrateful for the fair play pub-
licity accorded Germany by certain papers
in America, which, however, are unfortu-
nately exceptions to the prevailing tone
of your press. All Germany wants is fair

play. Let the American papers give the
people all the news; let Americans pass
judgment with all facts in their posses-
sion, that- is all Germany asks, but please
try to accord us what you must surely
admit we deserve, and that is simple
justice.

How About British Militarism?

By Dr. Alfred F. M. Zimmermann

German Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs
[From a statement made to a Berlin correspondent of The Chicago Daily News]

EVER since the beginning of the war
our enemies have been shouting
about Prussian militarism. Now the
reign of terror in Ireland has shown the
finest flower of British militarism. Eng-
land has established conscription, which
it professed to hate so bitterly as a Ger-
man institution, but it did not take con-
scription to show to what lengths British
militarism can go. Sir Edward Grey has
dared to repeat again that England
wishes to confer the blessings of freedom
upon Europe. The bloodstained soil of
Ireland shows just what this freedom
means. The same British militarism has
ground beneath its iron heels the helpless
people of India.

The same British militarism has wield-
ed its cruel sway in Egypt and the same
militarism killed the helpless women and
children of the Boers in South Africa.

That is what British freedom means.
For British militarism has not changed.
It is the same today as it was a century
and a half ago, when it hired the Indians
in America to massacre England's help-
less colonists because they tried to throw
off the yoke.

Balfour also revives the old British
tale that German victory will imperil the
Monroe Doctrine. He knows that is not
so. We have said again and again, and
I repeat now, that neither the German
Government nor the German people have
any intention of infringing upon the
Monroe Doctrine. We look upon the
Monroe Doctrine as a policy which re-
serves to the American nations their com-
plete self-sovereignty and the right to

shape their own destinies. Please re-
member that it is England and not
we who have colonial possessions in
America.

But these British statesmen, as well as
President Poincare of France, are now
talking because they wish to hide the fact
that upon them rests the responsibility
for their hopeless continuation of this
war. How hollow the British pretension
to humanity and civilization. These men
realize that British violations of Amer-
ican sea rights, the illegal blockade of
American commerce and the piracy of
American mails are resented by Amer-
icans and they fear the reckoning which
they know must come.

Germany twice has solemnly announced
a willingness to consider peace proposals
on a reasonable basis. We, too, want
peace in Europe. We want a real and
lasting peace — one that will guarantee
us and all of Europe against another
war. We, too, want the freedom of Eu-
rope, but we want real freedom for
Europe. Or is Greece Sir Edward's idea
of a free nation under the British ideal
of freedom?

I do not want you to misunderstand
me. A victorious Germany does not need
to beg for peace. When I say now that
Germany is willing to consider peace pro-
posals it is a sign of our strength. For
the people of Germany whose sacrifices
and heroic devotion to the Fatherland
have, with the blessing of God, pre-
served us so far against a world of
enemies will carry us in triumph to the
end.

A Hero Tale of the Red Cross

By G. S. Petroff

War Correspondent of the Russkoye Slovo, Moscow
The following incident is narrated in M. Petroff s account of a battle on the eastern front.

ONE of our soldiers brought with
him a German officer, who could
hardly stand on his feet. His leg
had been pierced by a bayonet, his
shoulder was bleeding from a bullet,
and his arm had been bruised by the butt
end of a rifle. He was losing conscious-
ness from pain and loss of blood. As
soon as the soldier led him to our place
he dropped with his whole weight to the
ground. The doctor bandaged him, ex-
claiming: "What luck! Three wounds,
and in spite of all of them he will be
well soon. The wound in the leg is only
a flesh wound, his arm is badly bruised
but not broken, and only his collar-
bone at his shoulder is broken. In a
month he will be all right again. Just
look! what a handsome fellow, and what
expensive underwear! "

The bandaged officer came to him-
self, looked around the yard, and, seeing
the farmhouse in the background on fire,
he sharply seated himself.

" Now be quiet, calm yourself," said
the doctor, speaking in German and
taking the man gently by the shoulders.

" My wife, my wife ! " cried the Ger-
man, tearing himself forward.

"Where is the wife?"

" There, in the house, in the fire! " He
made an effort to get off the stretcher
from under the doctor's hands.

" Is he delirious or what? " muttered
the doctor in Russian. " There is no
one in the house," he added soothingly
in German. "Your German wounded were
there, but they were saved in time."

" But my wife? My wife! " cried the
captive in terror.

"What wife? How did she come
here? "

" She is a nurse. She was here with
the wounded. We loved each other, we
married only a year ago. She became a
nurse. Our regiment happened to be
near their hospital. Your offensive was

unexpected. There was no time to re-
move the hospital. The other nurses left,
but she would not leave when I was so
near. Where is she? My wife! "

" Did any one see a German nurse in
the house or yard? " asked the doctor,
turning to the Russian soldiers and tell-
ing them briefly what the prisoner had
said:

" There was no woman," came the re-
sponse. " The house was empty. Look
at the fire within. Even mice would have
run out by now."

At this moment something metallic
shrilled through the air above our heads.
A heavy German shell flew over us.

" Scoundrels ! " cursed the doctor.
" They are firing on us — and their own
wounded! We must get out of this.
Two or three more shells and they will
begin dropping in the yard. Carry our
wounded first, then theirs. Hurry, or we
shall remain here for eternity! "

The captive officer, apparently pow-
erless, could not rise from the stretcher,
where he was lying with one of his sol-
diers who had been wounded before him.
He gazed devouringly at the blazing
house. Suddenly he shouted savagely:
"There, at the window, under the roof!
Look, she is breaking the window — where
the smoke is pouring out! "

We looked at the roof of the blazing
house, and, in truth, there was a woman's
figure in white, with a red cross on her
breast. The doctor shouted: "Eh, fel-
lows, it is true! A woman was left in
the house — a nurse — his wife! "

"What can be done?" asked the
stunned soldiers. " The whole house i&
on fire, and she is not strong enough to
break through the* window frame. She
must be weak from fright. But why did
she go up ? Why not down ? "

" There's no use guessing ! " shouted
a bearded fellow, evidently from the re-
serves, throwing off his overcoat.

704 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

" Where are you going? " cried the
soldiers.

But he was already out of reach of
their voices. He rushed into the house.
All were stupefied, fearing to breathe.
A minute passed, another, a third. Then
at the window appeared the bearded face
of the Russian soldier. There came the
sound of broken 4glass and wood. Above
our heads something was shrilling, but
no one paid attention to the German
shells. The soldier broke the window,
dragged the woman into the open air.
She was unconscious.

" Catch ! " rang from above, and a big
white parcel came down. The soldiers
caught it successfully on the hero's out-
spread overcoat. Only one of them was
hurt in the eye by the heel of her shoe.

" How will our chap get back to us
now? " asked the soldiers of one another.
" It is hell inside."

" Oh, he will get out, all right," said
some one. " It is easier to get out than
to get in. He knows the way. And if he
burns some of his beard, no harm; he has
a large one."

" Carry her to her husband ! " ordered
the doctor, " and get out from here im-
mediately. The Germans are shelling us.
Take away the rest, and don't forget the
couple," remarked jokingly the doctor,
happy over the incident. " I will wait
for our hero. He may be burned."

The soldiers caught the remaining
stretchers, and nearly ran out of the
yard. At that moment a big German
shell struck the burning house. A deaf-

ening explosion shook the air. The walls
trembled, shook, and fell. The heroic
soldier had not had time to get out. He
remained buried under the ruins.

When the woman recovered conscious-
ness near her wounded husband she did
not understand where she was. She
murmured in perplexity: " Dream, death?
Otto, is that you? Are we together in
Heaven?"

" On earth and both alive," calmed the
doctor.

" How did you get to the upper story? "
asked the husband.

" I saw Russian soldiers run into the
house. I feared violence, so I ran up-
stairs. ' I thought I would run down
later, but then came the fire. * * *
A so'ldier appeared behind me and I was
terrified to death."

" But that soldier saved you ! " sighed
the doctor.

"How? Where is he?"

" In heaven, if there is such a place for
heroes." The doctor then told them all.
The German officer and his wife both
cried.

" But how was it that your guns were
firing at a farm which you were occupy-
ing? " suddenly asked the prisoner.

" Our guns? " exclaimed the doctor,
who was already bandaging a new vic-
tim. " It was your guns that were shell-
ing a house over which flew a German
Red Cross flag. Our soldiers were sav-
ing the lives of your wounded, and your
guns were firing at both ours and yours.
They killed the man who saved you.
That's the way the Kaiser makes war."

2,500 War Dogs Helping to Save Wounded Germans

Dr. Max Osborn recently devoted an article in the Vossische Zeitung to the
work of the 2,500 " Sanitatshunde " that are helping the German Hospital
Corps to pick up wounded men. A " dress parade " of these dogs was given for
his benefit in the Verdun district. There were sheep dogs, Airedale terriers, re-
trievers, and pointers, each about 2 years old, German sheep dogs being in the
majority. They had learned to obey commands, given by word of mouth and
pistol shots, " like Prussian infantrymen." The drill consisted of distinguishing
the prostrate living from figures representing dead men, passing by men still
able to stand by themselves, and indicating not only where men were lying down
but leaning in a state of semi-collapse or sitting up. " And, best of all," concludes
Dr. Osborn, " they are serving the Fatherland unselfishly, without hopes of either
promotion or decorations." France, however, which also is using a few dogs
in this way, recently decorated with gold collars fifteen that had seen service at
the front.

Magazinists of the World on the War

Condensed From Leading Reviews

In the excerpts printed in this department of CURRENT HISTORY will be found examples
of current thought in all the warring- countries, as represented by their leading writers and
more influential periodicals.

"We Are Not Winning This War"

By Dr. E. J. Dillon

Chief Correspondent of The London Telegraph
[By arrangement with The Fortnightly Review]

THERE is probably no people in
Europe more easily deluded -than
the British, nor any that con-
tents itself more readily with
flimsy excuses for the blunders of its
chosen leaders. The bulk of the British
people are still patient, trustful, and of
good cheer. Notwithstanding the most
sinister deterrents they still seem willing
to go on " playing the game," and follow
their leader even though he prove a pied
piper hurrying them to the abyss.

The story of Warsaw may be repeated
at Verdun. "Already," the Germans tell
us, "we have attained one momentous
result; we have broken up the Allies*
boasted offensive in the Spring. We
have dealt a stunning blow to the French
from which they are not likely soon to
recover. France is too weak to hold her
present line, abridged though it has been
by the increased share taken by the Brit-
ish. It is the English whose turn has
now come to bear the brunt of the war
and supply men as well as money. In
words their pitch is high and strenuous,
but in deeds it is fitful and low. We
have obtained these advantages far more
cheaply than the French or British have
the courage to avow. Our losses are, as
nearly as possible, half the total alleged
by our enemy, whereas theirs are not less
than ours."

The war is still being waged on our
allies' territory. The Central Empires
(Germany and Austria) are immune
from the hardships of foreign invasion.
The discomforts which the blockade is
inflicting on them are as nothing com-

pared with these. Belgium is German.
The richest departments of France are
German. Serbia and Montenegro are
German. The mineral wealth, the great
metallurgical works and factories and
artisans of all these countries have been
lost to the Allies, and this loss has been
doubled by their employment against us.
And as we have not contrived to keep, so
we have failed to recover them. Nay,
we are still losing ground.

This war will not be terminated by
speeches about victory, but by strong
blows on the battlefields. And it is for
the purpose of having them dealt from
the plenitude of the empire's power that
a war- waging Ministry should take the
place of the well-meaning masters of
logical fence who have led the nation to
the verge of ruin.

The Germans are still strong, much
stronger than is commonly assumed. The
story of the melting away of their re-
serves to 700,000 is a puerile fabrication.
They claim that they and their Austrian
ally are turning out more high explosives ,
a week than the Allies and the United
States combined. For they have no strik-
ers, no slackers, no conscientious ob-
jectors, but only selfless patriots and a
Government which compels the few un-
willing to do their duty.

It is these qualities and the perfect or-
ganization based upon them that enable
the Central Empires to turn out 460,000
shells a day. The total of our output is
wisely kept secret.

We are not winnnig this war. To con-
vey any other impression to the public

706

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

would be cruel and unpatriotic. What is
more, we can not and shall not win it
unless we change our system and its
champions and alter our course at once.
The crucial question is whether, before
it is too late, the nation will displace
the leaders who are wasting instead of
utilizing its resources in men, munitions,
and money.

It is a mischievous fallacy that time is
on our side. The Germans still have be-
tween 7,000,000 and 8,000,000 men to
draw from, and their quality will be ap-
proximately equal to that of the Allies.
I go further, and assert that they dis-
pose of nearly 2,000,000 of their best
troops, whom they have kept back for
the coup de grace. The attempt to
exhaust them by attrition appears
futile.

On the water we are more fortunate.
None the less, even there conditions
have changed to our detriment. * * *

An acquaintance of mine sets down
the loss of commercial shipping since the
beginning of this struggle at over 3,000,-
000 tons. Our losses continue, with a
tendency to increase rather than diminish.
Our commercial fleet is being whittled
at both ends — by the enemy on the one
side and by ourselves and our allies on
the other. It has now become possible
to determine how long we can stand the
strain of this process, which is intensified
by the further trouble that the subma-
rines are not only reducing our tonnage
below our abnormal requirements, but
are rendering it occasionally impossible
for us to utilize even the transports avail-
able.

Is it right, then, to proclaim that time
is on our side ?

It is highly probable that after a while
the consequences of this naval semi-pa-
ralysis will make themselves felt in this
country and most acutely among the
working classes.

The people of Great Britain, loath to
admit that their heroic ally (France)
has fared so badly, (as the Germans al-
lege,) cling to the belief that the great
Spring offensive will strike the Teuton
with dismay and hearten ourselves and
our friends. But Senator Humbert in his
widely circulated press organ tells us
France " has accomplished fully, and
more than fully, her share in the common
task. Has not the moment come to take
this into account? "

Qn the part of our Russian allies we
can rely upon grandiose exploits of hero-
ism, but miracles cannot be expected.

We do not stand a chance of winning
if the war continue to be conducted some
time longer by the men of routine. To
these placid politicians the struggle is
hardly yet a reality.

Can inefficiency hope to beat effi-
ciency, chaos triumph over organization,
the blind force ol the angry bull match
the intelligent manoeuvres of the mata-
dor? The corollary to the negative an-
swers which these queries must evoke is
the displacement of the Government re-
sponsible for the lack of plan, the dis-
organization of the nation's forces, and
the dissipation of its substance.

The stereotyped answer to all demands
for a change of Government is the im-
possibility of finding any successor to
the Premier. Is that plea admissible?
Will it be seriously maintained that there
is no strong man in Great or Greater
Britain who would not conduct the af-
fairs of the country much more success-
fully than the men responsible for the
Dardanelles fiasco, for the Mesopota-
mian expedition?

What is needed is not a political but a
war Cabinet, not a little parliament of
twenty-two theorists, but half a dozen
live men. By such a committee the mis-
takes of the past might possibly be re-
paired.

The Spirit of German Culture

By Professor Ernst Troeltscb.

University of Berlin

At the beginning of last October Germany had already published the amazing total of 6,395
books and pamphlets about the present war. In an article on " German War Literature " in
the Contemporary Review Dr. Thomas F. A. Smith singles out as the most important volume
" Deutschland und der Weltkrieg," ("Germany and the World War,") edited by Professors
Hintze, Meinecke, Oncken, and Schumacher, with sixteen other well-known scholars as con-
tributors. A portion of Professor Troeltsch's contribution to that volume, as translated by Dr.
Smith, is given below.

THE German is by nature a meta-
physician and hypercritic, who
strives to understand the world
and things, man and fate, from within,
from the standpoint of the spiritual in-
wardness of the universe. It would be
idle to attempt an explanation of the
origin and spread of this prevailing trait.
But it is the innermost life secret of the
Germans, one which has caused much dis-
pute among us, the motive inspiring im-
measurable sacrifice and suffering, the
force which has achieved greatly, and
the problem of an ever new adjustment
to the practical demands of life and its
material demands.

In essentials the German spirit always
occupies itself with fundamentals, ex-
pression, and motive; not with lines,
form, symmetry, or finesse. The deep-
lying differences between the German
and Latin peoples are based upon this
profound antithesis. Among the latter,
art stands in much closer relationship to
the immediate forms and instincts of life.
This finds ample expression in the cul-
ture war, and for many it forms tne
actual reason for the charge of barbar-
ism, just as the French in the classical
period declared the Renaissance poet,
Shakespeare, to be a drunken barbarian,
and the Italians looked upon Northern
Gothic as barbaric art. From this source
a mass of international verdicts has
arisen and been stamped as axioms in
the elegant phrases of French journal-
ism. Above all, they have found welcome
among the Anglo-Saxons, who have been
altogether robbed of any exact artistic
traditions by their business instincts and
Puritanism. As regards this point further
dispute is useless.

It is remarkable that foreigners are

unable to recognize German idealism —
which they brandmark as political im-
maturity, when the latter applies itself
to social and political problems and treats
them in a manner suitable to German
history, instead of acting according to
French or English suppositions, which to
them appear to be natural laws. By the
intimate connection between the State
and culture, German social-philosophy
cannot be what the French and English
democracies wish it to be. In that re-
spect it is purely idealistic. German
philosophy and the potato-bread spirit of
which Lloyd George speaks belong to-
gether, just as English philosophy and
the miners' strike. * * *

France's idea of freedom is based upon
the principle of equality, but in practice
it does not prevent power from falling
into the hands of plutocrats and lawyers.
The English idea postulates the inde-
pendence of the individual from the
State. Without doubt both of them con-
tain, and have indeed realized, mighty
developments in social and political life.
But the German idea of liberty is entirely
different. Emerging from centuries of
subjection, the German found freedom
in education (Bildung) and in the intel-
lectual or spiritual contents of his indi-
vidual personality. German freedom will
never be purely political; it will always
be bound up with the idealistic concept
of duty and the Romantic egoistic idea.
Parliaments are necessary; but in our
eyes they are not the essence of free-
dom.

The right to vote and the assistance of
the people in matters of Government
develop political maturity, but this is
not freedom as we understand it.

The great national cultures all have

708 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

their advantages and disadvantages, but
the world has room for them all. The
longer the war of weapons has lasted,
the bitterer has the culture war become.
For our part we know that in the first
place it is not a war of principles and
ideas, but a fight for our existence. In
the next place, we are fighting for the

right to live; but our political existence
as a great power means at the same time
the spirit of unconquerable belief that
the world-principle of liberty does not
include English direction of the moral-
political order of things in this world,
nor that the seas should be under English
domination.

High Cost of Living in Germany

By Viscount Georges d'Avenel

That France is standing shoulder to shoulder with Great Britain in the determination
to tighten the blockade is clearly indicated in this article from La Revue des Deux Mondes,
Paris.

MANY Germans of the North," wrote
Mr. Theodor Wollf recently in the
Berliner Tageblatt, " will suffer
no detriment from moderating their con-
sumption of butter; for in this country
persons whom indigence does not pre-
serve from excess in eating are often
afflicted with a monstrous obesity.
There are peoples who know how to feed
themselves, and who do not see the neces-
sity for adding butter to cheese."

There are, beyond question, M. Wollf,
and among these peoples figured the
Germans of other days; since the German
of 1914 ate twice as much as the Ger-
man of 1870. Figures prove it beyond
contest, and the politicians beyond the
Rhine stated it, not without pride, before
the war.

It is enough to say that, if the younger
generations born in the lap of this re-
cent abundance, if even the elder folk
who have gradually accustomed them-
selves to this growing well-being, ex-
perience certain gripings of the stomach
when they lose, in a few months, the
satisfactions of the palate which they
had gained in a half century, it is none
the less true that the Germany of today
could be weaned from a large part of
its edibles without being " starved " or
in danger of suffering hunger.

Besides, we all know that material
interests no longer count in this war;
Germany has sacrificed hers to the
dreams of a morbid ambition, and we no
longer pay heed to ours, now that the

blood of our sons has been shed in flood.
Neither economic difficulties nor the lack
of money will put an end to this strug-
gle; nor will it be the deficiency of
weapons and of munitions, since on both
sides they are being ceaselessly multi-
plied; but it will be some day the in-
equality of effectives in the belligerent
armies, for men cannot be manufactured
and renewed like machines. On that day
Germany, which was the first to let
loose " numbers " and to triumph through
them, will be conquered by "numbers"
in her turn.

Up to the present our blockade, which
has raised the prices of many commodi-
ties among our enemies, only provokes a
certain discomfort and arouses a very
natural discontent among the German
crowds, who cannot understand why the
war continues so long, since the Allies,
they have been told, have long been
beaten.

This blockade, because of modifications
in favor of neutrals, was at first ultra-
benevolent; from August, 1914, to May,
1915, during the ten first months of the
war, the exports of Germany to Amer-
ica had hardly fallen to a half of what
they were in the ten corresponding
months of 1913-14. But if we consider
• the month of May alone, it amounted to
only 15,000,000 francs in 1915, against
75,000,000 in 1914. As for imports from
the United States to Germany, if we
heed only statistics, they fell to almost
nothing; but cottons, wool, and grain

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

709

made a detour and entered by minor
Scandinavian and Dutch ports. With a
benignity which some members of her
Cabinet called folly, England waited un-
til the end of September before declaring
that " the flag no longer covered mer-
chandise."

The Germans, on their part, cried out
long before they were hurt; the contra-
diction of the Berlin Government is even
piquant; if it desires to protest against
the blockade and demand the freedom of
the seas, it affirms that the country is
starving and lacks everything; but if it
is a question of the duration of the war
and the chances of victory, it announces
that Germany lacks nothing and can hold
out indefinitely.

In any case, if bread could be made by
laws, Germany would have plenty of it
to sell, for there has been no strike in
the making of laws touching materials
and merchandise in Germany since the
outbreak of hostilities; nor has there
been any failure of " associations," of
" committees," of " offices," of " Kriegs-
wirthschaftsgesellschaften," (" central
war supply societies,") for these copious
bureaus — perhaps there are over a hun-
dred of them — in which shines what
our neighbors complacently call their
" genius for organization." These are
composed in part of functionaries, in part
of willing professionals, charged with
making inventories, with buying, requisi-
tioning, transforming, distributing, con-
trolling, taxing, selling, and dividing into
rations the bulk of the food supply and
raw materials. * * *

The allies of Germany, poorer, less well
supplied, suffer more from the perturba-
tion brought by the war. Living in
Austria-Hungary, in Turkey, even in Bul-
garia, whose indigenous products were
utilized while almost nothing was brought
to her from without, is today dearer than
in Germany. The agents of Austria, un-
til the last few months, paid in Holland
for certain articles higher prices than
the Germans. The Germans had, because
of this, much difficulty in closing their
bargains. To obviate this occurrence,
the Berlin Commission charged with the
control of purchases abroad now central-
izes all merchandise entering the em-
pire. " .

From the time when this was done
it has become impossible for Austria to
buy supplies in Holland; she must go
by way of Berlin and pay a commission
to her allies. * * *

It must not be believed that the block-
ade is ineffective; quite the contrary;
and, although the. affirmation may seem
paradoxical, its action will make itself
felt far more by what it keeps from go-
ing out than by what it keeps from com-
ing in; much more after peace than dur-
ing the war.

The result of this pressure upon Ger-
many, which will be more effica-
cious and durable the longer the strug-
gle lasts, will then appear far more dis-
tressing and onerous for the industry
and commerce ef Germany than the pass-
ing privations or dearness of certain
commodities and certain materials of
prime necessity.

French 75s: The Guns That Defend Verdun

By Stanley Washburn

War Correspondent of The London Times

SO much has been written of the
French 75s that it may seem super-
fluous even to mention them, but I
think that no one who has seen these
wonderful little guns in action can resist
singing their praises. It is extraordinary
that a piece of mechanism should play
such an enormous part in world history
as this has done, and it seems incongruous

that an engine of destruction should be
helping to save France and the civiliza-
tion of the West. Yet every officer with
whom I have talked tells me that it was
these little guns which saved the battle
of the Marne, and the general opinion
seems to be that Verdun, too, owes its
salvation to the swarms of little stinging
bees that stung the German columns to

'10 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

death on the bloody slopes of that now
famous battlefield.

When I asked the General to be shown
a battery of 75s every face in the group
of officers beamed. Winding through the
woods was a tiny trail, and this we fol-
lowed until we emerged into a little
clearing. A look disclosed the hiding
place of a battery. I was escorted by the
young Captain in charge into the nest
of one of these guns. Squatted com-
placently on its haunches, its alert little
nose peered expectantly out of a curtain
of brush. If there ever was a weapon
which had a personality it is surely this
gun. Other field guns seem to me to
be cynical and sinister, but this gun, like
the French themselves, has nothing ma-
levolent or morose about it. It is serious,
to be sure, but its whole atmosphere is
one of cheerful readiness to serve. Its
killing is a part of its impersonal duty, as
indeed one feels to be the case with the
clean, gentlemanly soldiers of France.
They kill to save France, not because they
have the lust of slaughter.

The Captain showed me the details of
the wonderful mechanism and explained
the system of the recoil, sights, and other
features of the gun. Fortunately for me,
it was the hour of the day when the bat-
tery was accustomed to have a little
practice against the enemy, and I have
never in war seen anything more inspir-
ing from a military point of view than
the working of this gun, with its sharp,
defiant little barks.

With a speed of fire of thirty shells to
the minute and with a well-trained crew
serving it with clockwork regularity, it
resembles a machine gun rather than a

field piece in action. So exquisite is the
adjustment of the recoil that a coin or
even a glass of water can be placed on
the wheel while in action without being
jarred off.

In one of the Russian battles one of
their batteries fired 525 rounds to the
gun in a single day, which seemed to me
at that time an extraordinary rate of
fire. When I mentioned this to the Cap-
tain, he laughingly replied, " I have fired
from this (four-gun) battery 3,100
rounds of shells in forty-five minutes."
I listened to him in amazement. " How
long do your guns last at that rate? "
I asked him, for the theory before the
war was that a field piece did not have a
life exceeding 8,000 to 10,000 rounds of
fire. The officer placed his hand affec-
tionately on the gun that we were in-
specting. " This is a brand-new gun
which I have just received," he said.
" The one whose place it has taken had
fired more than 30,000 shells and still
was not entirely finished." Then he add-
ed, " You are surprised at my speed of
fire, but there have been 75s in this war
that have fired 1,600 rounds in a single
day." From the guns he took me to his
magazine and showed me tier upon tier
of brightly polished, high-explosive and
shrapnel shells lying ready for use.

When the war is over there will no
doubt be a great building of monuments
to commemorate the dead who have fallen
and the heroes who have played their
part. There might perhaps also be erect-
ed in the capital city of every ally a shaft
in honor and appreciation of the French
75, which is doing wonders to save Eu-
rope and the world.

Flemish Culture Is Not German

By L. Dumont-Wilden"

Staff Contributor to Le Figaro, Paris

npHE exhibition of Belgian artists at
J. the Salon in the Rue de Seze is the
timeliest answer that could be made
to certain propositions laid down by
Herr von Bethmann Hollweg in the
Reichstag, namely, that Flanders is a
dependency of Germany and that its

population, " Germanic by blood, speech,
and culture," ought logically to re-enter
the empire. How false and lying this
assertion is these paintings show. If this
profoundly original art owes anything to
other schools, it is only to the French.
The great landscape painters of the

MAGAZ1NISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

711

Fontainebfeau school, the Impressionists
and the Neo-Impressionists, have had
disciples in Belgium, and particularly in
Flanders, who have often been the equals
of their masters. The whole history of
Flemish painting shows that there was
from the first a constant reciprocity be-
tween Flemish and French art. The
magnificent Flemish school of the
fifteenth century owes the first elements
of a style, which nevertheless is its own,
to the colorists of the Paris school. In
return, the Flemings founded the Bur-
gundian school of sculpture; and in the
sixteenth century the Valois attracted to
their Courts as many Flemish as Italian
artists. Many Franco-Flemish painters
it is impossible to assign to either school.
It is especially since the beginning of
the nineteenth century that the relations
between Belgian and French art have
become intimate and the influence on one
another constant. David had a studio in
Brussels; Nicaise de Keyser, the Wap-
pers, and the Gallaits were influenced by
Delacroix and Delaroche. Finally Im-
pressionism, which is purely French in
origin, immediately exercised a decisive
influence in Belgium, as can be seen in
the work of Glaus, Van Rysselberghe, and
Ensor. It would scarcely be possible to
find two or three contemporary Belgian
painters, even among the less interesting

artists, who owe anything to German
taste.

In Belgian literature it is not only the
Walloons who are French writers. It is
sufficient to mention the names of
Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Georges Ekhoud,
Albert Giraud, and Van Lerberghe — all
of pure Flemish origin and all pure
French as writers. Herr von Bethmann
Hollweg can say what he likes about
Flanders being a Germanic country,
joined by its culture to " kultur," but in
reply the French artists have only to
show their pictures and the Flemish writ-
ers their books — written in French.
Flanders, like Alsace, is a border prov-
ince where formerly the blood of the
Gallic tribes has been mingled with that
of German invaders. In consequence, a
German idiom has become the vernacular
of the country, but both have been for
centuries illumined by French enlighten-
ment, and for centuries all the manifesta-
tions of the higher civilization are
French.

In the face of these facts, German
violence, intrigue, threats, and imposture
are impotent. One only needs an exhi-
bition of paintings or the publication of
a poem by Verhaeren or an essay by
Maeterlinck to upset — as far as Flanders
is concerned — the whole of the Chan-
cellor's arguments.

Within What Limits the Pope Can Be Admitted
to the Peace Congress

By Eugenic Valli

Member of the Italian Senate
[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY from the Nuova Antologia, Rome]

A SIMPLE and glib answer to the
question of the Pope's participa-
tion in the Peace Congress can
be given with certainty only by clerical
doctrinists or by anti-clerical doctrinists.
The latter must reply negatively, because
they do not take account of the situa-
tions produced in a long historical de-
velopment and want to regulate the so-
cial life of men in the State, and the life

of States in humanity, without refer-
ence to religious ideas and institutions.
If States are to ignore the existence of
these manifestations, except as they may
at some time act as a brake for the
safeguarding of public order, it neces-
sarily follows that it is impossible for
men of these views to admit the repre-
sentation of such institutions at a con-
gress.

712 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Vice versa, clerical doctrinists must
answer such a question affirmatively
and with no less certainty. Rather must
their affirmation be the more exuberant
as it is impossible, in the eyes of your
clerical doctrinist, to pay any attention
to the distant historical development that
gave life to the international personality
of the Church and to the more recent
historical development that has modified
it. The Catholic Church, while resisting
rigidly in the field of principle, feels
and is influenced by the surrounding
atmosphere, and always ends by chang-
ing and accommodating itself to that
atmosphere without loss of any of its
great splendor.

Clerical doctrinism, which is to some
extent a deformity marring the great-
ness of the Church, has made itself as
rigid as a fossil in the results of me-
diaeval concessions. The Pope is not only
in matters of religion the head of the
Catholic Church and the Vicar of God on
earth, he is also the head of the Society
of the States. He is invested by immut-
able and Divine right with that suzerain-
ty which, in the interests of the faith,
exclusively protected by his prudent gov-
ernment, gave him the prerogative in the
Middle Ages and at the beginning of
modern times of absolving subjects of a
heretical sovereign, or one rebellious to
the Church, from their oath of al-
legiance, and to diwde among two
Catholic powers the sovereignty over dis-
covered countries, or even those to be dis-
covered eventually in the New World.

In conformity with this doctrine, which
I recently heard defended with more
courage than success, the Pope should
not only participate in the congress — he
should have the first right to initiate it,
to preside over it, and to moderate it.
His right and his capacity to protect in-
ternational order should be considered

superior to that of the single States.
* * *

It is apparent, then, that there is but

one conclusion to be drawn from this

the answer of extreme clericalism and
extreme anti-clericalism may be consid-
ered practically negative. Here is the
simple reason: In the matter of par-
ticipation at the congress by a repre-

sentative of the Pontificate, binder ex-
actly the same title as that of the in-
dividual States, we see that such Papal
representation is as incompatible with
the negative solution of the one party as
with the overaffirmative solution of the
other — according to which the Pope
should be seated as the overlord and ar-
biter among the representatives of the
various States.

THE TEMPORAL POWER

But Papal representation at the con-
gress may be, and is in fact, asked for
now on the basis of another title, and is
defended from different points of view
and maintained by various arguments
that should be examined one by one.

The Pope could be invited or admitted
to the congress as the pretendent of the
State of the Church, or a partial restora-
tion of this State. It is under this title
especially that full diplomatic rights are
asked for the Pontificate by one of the
most authoritative representatives of the
uncompromising clerical school of public
policy.*

The Pope could propose himself (a) to
claim the rights of the States of the
Church, (b) or that part of the States of
the Church in regard to which he has not
yet tacitly admitted the territorial con-
dition created in Italy by popular vote;
(c) or to ask, without any preventive
rules beyond the recognition of his sov-
ereign personal prerogatives which are
universally admitted, a territorial sov-
ereignty, to be conceded him under re-
strictions, at the will of the powers.

Evidently this demand — whatever be
its extension or attenuation — is fla-
grantly at variance not only with our in-
terests, but with public rights. This de-
mand, whether for much or little, or
even a speck of land, would bring into
question the integrity of our territory.
The demand or proposal would be gravely
offensive to us, because Italian territory
would be subjected, even if only in the
abstract, to the revision or the limitation
of the other powers. Italy must there-
fore exact the absolute exclusion of these
discussions from the congress. The pres-

*De Luise, in " De iure publico seu diplo-
matico Ecclesiae Catholicae."

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

713

ence of a representative of the Pope, if
these questions are left untouched, would
not mean an offense to our rights and in-
terests.

INTERNATIONAL GUARANTEE

Even independently of a claim or de-
mand for temporal power, the Pope could
aspire to admission to the congress as
the highest religious authority of a uni-
versal character. Under this title, he
could seek to obtain guarantees for the
absolute security, as also for the inde-
pendence and the continuity of his work.

This international guarantee could, as
a sort of " garrison " of the Pontiff's au-
thority arid functions, form an equivalent
— according to certain Catholics — to the
territorial sovereignty lost in 1870. Ac-
cording to other Catholics, the indepen-
dence of the Holy See would be, as a re-
sult, gravely menaced, because the Pon-
tiff, instead of being personally a sov-
ereign in the sight of Italy — which did
not create but recognized his exceptional
juridical condition as history developed a
little 'at a time — instead of this he would
find himself in a new legal position, one
created by the powers and dependent on
their collective guarantee. On this head
we must again speak most clearly.

Our Government mus.t exact the exclu-
sion of this argument from the congress
just as completely as the other one about
territory. That is not enough. To ex-
clude it, even in the form of subtle and
astute presentation, the Italian Govern-
ment must put forth if possible an even
more unshakable tenacity. The absolute
integrity of the territory of our State
should be sacred to every Italian. Even
more sacred, if I may so express myself,
should be the absolute independence of
the State and the fullness of its sov-
ereignty. It would be interesting to see,
to know, to read what all the other coun-
tries would think or do if they were in
our position. They would do neither more
nor less than what I am thinking and
writing, and I say this in all modesty, but

unchangeably. The creation of a Pontifi-
cal San Marino would be a break in the
territorial integrity of Italy. * * *
The most essential parts of our legisla-
tion would as a result . be exposed to
future interference, positive or negative,
from the Pope and the powers from
whom he had his guarantee. And as, in
the course of time, the Italian Govern-
ment should tend to get away from such
interference, which is clearly intoler-
able, so for those even who in good faith
had not foreseen this degree of pressure
and suffering there would result finally
the danger of a resurrection of temporal
power. * * *

THE POPE'S REPRESENTATIVE
If an invitation were extended to the
Pope to attend the congress as a sover-
eign, considered, so to speak, as the head
of a first-class State, there would be no
contradiction with the existing prece-
dents of international law. The Pope is
in fact considered a sovereign, and his
representatives as diplomatic agents.
Even now there is in operation a regula-
tion as to grades and precedents among
diplomatic agents which was signed at
Vienna on March 19, 1815, and complet-
ed by the Protocol of Acquisgrana on
Nov. 21, 1818.

According to that regulation, the first
class is composed of Ambassadors, Le-.
gates, or Nunciates. Article IV. of the
Regulation of Vienna establishes the rule
that diplomatic agents should have their
precedence in every class based on the
data of the official notification of their
arrival. Then it adds : " The present
regulation shall not carry with it any
innovation as to the representatives of
the Pope." All the powers, then, implic-
itly recognized that precedence of the
representative of the Pontiff outside of
the question of seniority which was and
is in effect in the Catholic capitals, and
as an effect of which all the accredited
diplomatic agents, at Vienna or at Ma-
drid, e. g., recpgnize in the Papal *Nun-
ciate the head of the Diplomatic Corps.

The Trend of Events in Asia Minor

By Colonel K. Shumski

Russian Military Critic
[Translated for CUKKENT HISTORY from the Niva, Petrograd]

ONE of the most considerable events
that closed the preparatory opera-
tions of the Winter was the cap-
ture, by our gallant Caucasus armies, of
Trebizond, an important port and a valu-
able strategical and political centre.
This new success of the Army of the Cau-
casus is the immediate result of two of
our chief victories in the Caucasus war
zone — the battle of Sarikamysh, in De-
cember, 1914, and the storming of Erze-
rum, on Feb. 16, 1916.

In this last contest was finally broken
the power of resistance of the Turkish
Third Army, and therefore after the fall
of Erzerum it was logical to expect the
gradual, almost automatic fall of a series
of very important points in Armenia.
The only question was, how far condi-
tions of weather and locality would ena-
ble us to seize all these points more or
less rapidly; but the fall of Mush, of
Bitlis, of the Port -of Rizeh, of the Port
of Trebizond, was evidently predeter-
mined.

Erzerum fell on Feb. 16, 1916, and we
have more than once insisted upon the
great and ever-growing importance of
that event, as almost v/eek by week our
capture of one point after another was
announced. At the same time, it might
have been predicated that the conquest
of Mush, Bitlis, and Port Rizeh should be
explained by the disruption of the Turk-
ish forces resulting immediately from
the fall of Erzerum, but that, when the
Turks had had time to draw breath, a
more serious opposition might be expect-
ed from them.

For this reason, therefore, apart from
all other considerations, the fall of Trebi-
zond is important; because it shows that
our armies were able to capture a series
of points in Asia Minor, not because the
Turks had been shaken by the loss of
Erzerum, but because the Turks are in
fact incapable of offering any serious

resistance to the victorious advance of
our armies. At Mush and Bitlis, it might
have been argued that our armies were
profiting directly by the results of a
panic which took possession of the Turks
after Erzerum. But when two months
passed, and when Trebizond was taken,
the Turks had had every opportunity to
reorganize their resistance, in order to
hold that important point; and, if they
did not do this, then it was solely because
it was beyond their power to do it; be-
cause the Turkish Army was broken, and,
for the Turks on the Caucasus front, the
war was irretrievably lost.

The one thing that has saved the Turks
from a final catastrophe is the enormous
expanse of the theatre of war in Arme-
nia; spaces of many hundreds of miles
leading, on the one hand, to Constanti-
nople, and, on the other, to the Persian
Gulf. All the calculations of Turkish
strategy are based on the fact that a
great deal of time and very extensive
preparations will be needed to drive them
back on Constantinople; and, while this
time is passing, the Turks hope for Ger-
man victories on the main fronts, in Eu-
rope.

Under these conditions it is perfectly
idle to think that the Turks can ever win
back any of the territory they have lost.
It might be reasonable to think of this,
if the Turks could expect any effective
aid from Germany; but, as we know, the
entire resources of the Germans are ab-
sorbed by their problems on the French
and Russian fronts, and it is wholly be-
yond their power to detach any forces
whatever to be sent to the aid of the
weakening Turkish defensive. Without
question the Germans knew that Trebi-
zond must fall, since the Turks were un-
der the necessity of defending three
directions of operations at once — the line
against Trebizond; the line against Er-
zinjian, (the direction of Constantinople,)

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

715

and the line against Mesopotamia — and a
defensive on such an extended front is an
insoluble problem, especially where there
are no supply roads from the rear. So
the Germans must have known that it
would be necessary to sacrifice at least
one of these lines, and Teuton-Turkish
strategy had to decide on which line the
largest forces should be concentrated,
and which should be abandoned.

First, the Teuton-Turkish strategists
unquestionably determined that all possi-
ble forces must be concentrated on the
Erzinjian line, because this line leads to
Constantinople, and, further, because the
success of the Russian armies at this
point would mean the smashing in of the
whole front of the Turkish Third Army;
and after such a smash, the sea coast
division of the army would be wholly cut
off, as would also be the southern, Meso-
potamian, division. Through Erzinjian
leads the important road to Sivas and
Angora, from which reinforcements from
Constantinople were expected, and through
which the Bagdad railroad passes.

Further, of the two other directions,
the Trebizond line and the Mesopotamia
line, the enemy evidently considered the
latter the more important; consequently
the smaller forces were concentrated on
the Trebizond line. This is probably to
be explained by the fact that the Ger-
mans, for whom Mesopotamia and the
Bagdad railway possess a more impor-
tant interest, were able to coerce the
Turks into giving up the serious defense
of the Trebizond zone, for the purpose
of concentrating their forces on the Mes-
opotamia line.

The Russians, attacking Trebizond
from behind, were energetically support-
ed by the Black Sea fleet, and Trebizond
was quickly cleared of Turks, who fled
to the southwest — that is, in the direc-
tion of Erzinjian, which is now the staff
headquarters of the Turkish Third Army.
It thus happens that the two termini of
the road from Erzerum to Trebizond are
in our hands, while Baiburt, the central
point of the road, is still in the possession
of the Turks, and is being obstinately
defended.

This last circumstance has high impor-
tance, as the road to Erzinjian also leads
through the Baiburt Pass, and the whole
defensive power of the Turks is now evi-
dently concentrated in the Baiburt-
Erzinjian region. The mastery of the
whole of the road between Trebizond and
Erzerum is, therefore, of the greatest im-
portance to us, because this is one of the
best roads in Asia Minor; because it runs
parallel to our front, and would unite our
forces at Trebizond with our forces at
Erzerum, and likewise with the southern
group, which is operating in the region
of Bitlis and Mush, in the direction of
Kharput.

In the region of Baiburt, or, as it is
called in our bulletins, " the region of
the Upper Chorokh," the mountains are
exceedingly chaotic in character, and the
Turks are evidently counting on making
a protracted defensive there. As at the
same time the mastery of the Trebizond-
Erzerum road is very important to us, it
is natural to expect the development of
a great battle on the road to Trebizond,
and also on the road to Erzinjian.

England's Seizure of Mails

By H. Wittmaack

German Writer on International Law

Since the Washington Administration has put extra pressure on the British Government
touching the question of mails in transit between neutral ports, the subjoined article is of
interest in showing the German viewpoint.

THE English Government stops all
neutral mail steamers in transit
between neutral points, takes
them into English ports, and,
after searching, retains the parcels sent
in the post. How can such a procedure
be reconciled with the rights of nations?

Article 1 of The Hague agreement
relative to certain limitations respecting
seizures at sea during war reads:
" Whether belonging to neutrals or bel-
ligerents, mail (correspondance postale)
found on neutral or enemy ships, be this
of an official or private character, must
be held inviolable. In case of seizure, it
is incumbent on those responsible for
such seizures to forward the mail as
quickly as possible." In case a blockade
is in effect, this clause becomes inopera-
tive where mail is coming from or going
to blockaded ports.

In Article 2 it reads further : " The
inviolability of the mails does not exempt
neutral mail steamers from being subject
to regulations and usages due to naval
warfare; such as govern merchantmen
in general. However, the search should
be undertaken only in case of necessity,
with all due care and the utmost dis-
patch." This agreement was ratified by
all the nations concerned in the present
discussion.

The Declaration of London, Article 30,
decrees that even though carried in
neutral ships between neutral ports, ab-
solute contraband— that is, such articles
as are for war purposes — is to be seized
when the destination is an enemy country
or such territory as may be in the pos-
session of the enemy. For that reason
it is rather difficult to make objection
to the British Government's stopping
mail steamers with a view of ascertain-
ing whether they carry any absolute con^
traband in the parcel post destined for

enemy territory. If subsequently it is
necessary to take the steamer into an
English port, the owners of the ship
and of the parcels simply have to con-
sent. That absolute contraband, assigned
to the enemy country, is on hoard need
not necessarily be suspected, and the cir-
cumstance that such contraband goes by
the parcel post is insignificant by itself.
As a matter of fact, such merchandise
is exposed to the same fate as is con-
traband shipped in any other manner.
But the so-called conditional contraband
— that is, such materials as may be em-
ployed for both war and peace purposes
— can, according to Article 35 of the
Declaration of London, be subject to seiz-
ure only when the ship in question is
bound to or from territory of the enemy.
Neutral mail steamers plying between
neutral ports do not come within these
regulations.

The English Government never ratified
this declaration, but accepted it in the
present war with some modifications.
Under this modification comes the deci-
sion that conditional contraband, even on
neutral ships bound for neutral ports,
can be seized when the party to whom it
is actually assigned lives in enemy coun-
try. It is for this reason that the Eng-
lish Government takes to itself the right
to examine conditional contraband found
on neutral ships with a view to learning
whether in fact the parcels are not ulti-
mately to come into possession of some
one in an enemy country. This goes
quite contrary to the rights of nations,
but the English Government acts accord-
ing to its own convictions. However, in
the matter of conditional contraband the
principle was accepted even by England
that the question of seizure can arise
only when the goods are to be used by the
opposing power.

ENGLAND'S SEIZURE OF MAILS

717

Whatever regulations are in effect, they
do not fully explain the procedure of the
English Government. The attempt has
been made to obtain permission for the
importation of condensed milk from the
United States into Germany in order to
save German children from starvation.
It is said that the French Government
objected to this, and that in consequence
no shipments were made. It is to be
taken for granted that the French Gov-
ernment would not have taken this stand
without making sure that the English
Government would act likewise. It is
presumed that the French were given the
preference in entering objections so as to
give the Democrats and Socialists now in
control of affairs a chance to prove that
even while some of them may proclaim
the universal brotherhood on the whole,
no less than the English Government,
they are determined to conduct the battle
for civilization, culture, and humanity
by inhuman means.

We know by this time that whatever
the contents of the mail which England
seizes she keeps it for an indefinite
period. Even if no enemy character at-
taches, examination has to be made to
see whether or not it comes within the
blockade regulations. In this way, se-
curities sent from Holland on neutral
ships and destined for America were
seized by the English because they car-
ried a German seal, and the incorrect
conclusion was drawn that for this reason
they were German property.

Since the Scandinavian countries were
not signatories to the London Conference
they would be justified in holding to the
regulations of 1900, also agreed to by
England, that goods in transit on neutral
ships between neutral ports at no time
can be considered contraband. Denmark
and Norway, whose trade has been enor-
mously increased during the war, rather
inclined to fall in with England's wishes
all around. Sweden, on the other hand,
recalling its own glorious past, did not
relish the manner in which the English
are treating the rights of nations. Swe-
den took recourse to reprisals in that she
held back the mail bags that crossed the
country on their way to Russia. It is,
however, doubtful whether this measure

will be of any service. England is bent
on crushing Germany, and if this cannot
be accomplished on the battlefield she
will use every means in her possession to
Starve us into submission. When once
Germany is conquered, the argument
runs, a short shrift can be made of the
small nations.

According to The Hague agreement,
only direct mail — " correspondance pos-
tale "—is held inviolable. All other arti-
cles besides letters, whether included with
letters, or sent separately in envelopes,
cannot claim exemption.

The question has arisen what is meant
by the open sea. It is generally conceded
that within a certain distance from shore
the ocean comes under the jurisdiction
of the adjoining country. For instance,
in respect to fishing and the gathering
of other products of the sea, such juris-
diction is commonly acknowledged. It is
also the duty of such countries as btfrder
on the water to see to it that warring
nations do not violate the neutrality of
this zone in case it belongs to a neutral.

As for the width of this neutral zone,
in times past there has been a deal of
dispute. In the beginning of the eight-
eenth century the Dutch jurist, Bynker-
shoek, laid down the rule that the juris-
diction over the adjoining ocean reached
just as far as a cannon shot would be
effective. At that time a cannon ball
carried about three sea miles. To this
is due the fact that the coastal waters
of a country have been marked off as
covering three miles from shore, measur-
ing from low-water mark. But as a
matter of fact there has never been any
exact agreement as to these territorial
waters of any country. But there has
been no diversity of opinion on the point
that ships of all nations can pass through
these waters, providing they do not do
any damage to the territory; nor on this
other point, that in case they do not make
any stops while passing through, they
do not come within the jurisdiction of the
country bordering on the water.

In the year 1876, a collision took place
within the three-mile limit from the Eng-
lish coast to Dover, between the Ham-
burg steamer Frankonia and the English
ship Strathclyde. A passenger on the

718 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

latter ship lost his life. In England a
criminal charge was lodged against the
Captain of the Frankonia. But the
courts decided that there was no prec-
edent on which to rest the case. To
remedy this shortcoming, a law was
passed in 1878 whereby the English
courts assumed jurisdiction in English
coastal waters. This was the " Terri-
torial Waters Jurisdiction act." As a
consequence the British Government took
to itself the right to proceed against any
ship acting contrary to the law of the
land, even though the act was committed
aboard a foreign ship. While the matter
was yet under discussion in Parliament
the Lord Chancellor expressly declared
* that the passage through territorial
waters of any foreign vessel was a con-
cession on the part of England, and that,
consequently, those taking advantage of

the privilege were bound by what the
coastal country decreed.

The Hague agreement, Article 1, de-
clares clearly enough that it covers the
high seas and that territorial waters are
not considered in the premises. But the
seizure of mail on neutral ships within
English territorial waters is exactly
what caused a discussion between the
British and Dutch Governments. Eng-
land takes the position that she can act
toward ships passing through her terri-
torial waters as if they were passing
over her own soil. At the time of The
Hague peace conference the English
point of view was accepted in general
in so far as it concerned the, unimpeded
passage of ships through territorial
waters. As the issue stands today Eng-
land has gone directly counter to the
rights of nations.

"Too Proud to Fight"

President Wilson's celebrated words about being too proud to fight are so
often quoted and misquoted that the facts about them should be a matter of
record :

The phrase was used in an address delivered by the President in Convention
Hall, Philadelphia, May 10, 1915, before 4,000 newly naturalized citizens. It was
the President's first public address after the sinking of the Lusitania, May 7.
He did not in the course of his speech directly mention the Lusitania or sub-
marine warfare, but the address has been grouped with two others, delivered at
about the same time, as setting forth " the principles on which he would meet
the crises of the European war as they affect the United States." After speaking
of the ideals of America, in special reference to the coming of aliens to be Amer-
ican citizens, the President said : " The example of America must be a special
example. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace
because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and ele-
vating influence of the world, and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man
being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that
it does not need to convince others by force that it is right."

\ 4 "j Jtl-s**^

Freedom of the Seas

By Arthur James Balfour

First Lord of the British Admiralty

This important official utterance was given to the American public about the middle of
May through Edward Marshall and The Saturday Evening Post. Mr. Ba^our's lifelong
friendliness toward the United States enhances its interest. The full text of his statement
follows.

THE phrase " freedom of the seas "
is naturally attractive to British
and American ears. For the ex-
tension of freedom into all de-
partments of life and over the whole
world has been one of the chief aspira-
tions of the English-speaking people?,
and efforts toward that end have formed
no small part of their contribution to civ-
ilization. But freedom is a word of
many meanings, and we shall do well to
consider in what meaning the Germans
use it when they ask for it, not (it may
be safely said) because they love freedom
but because they hate Britain.

About the " freedom of the seas," in
one sense, we are all agreed. England
and Holland fought for it in times gone
by. To their success the United States
may be said to owe its very existence.

For if, three hundred years ago, the
maritime claims of Spain and Portugal
had been admitted, whatever else North
America might have been, it would not
have been English-speaking. It neither
would have employed the language, nor
obeyed the laws, nor enjoyed the institu-
tions, which, in the last analysis, are of
British origin.

But the " freedom of the seas " desired
by the modern German is a very dif-
ferent thing from the freedom for which
our forefathers fought in days of old.
How, indeed, can it be otherwise? The
most simple-minded must feel suspicious
when they find that these missionaries of
maritime freedom are the very same per-
sons who preach and who practice upon
the land the extremest doctrines of mili-
tary absolutism.

GERMANY'S AMBITIONS
Ever since the genius of Bismarck cre-
ated the German Empire by Prussian
rifles, welding the German people into a

great unity by military means, on a mili-
tary basis, German ambitions have been
a cause of unrest to the entire world.
Commercial and political domination, de-
pending upon a gigantic army autocrat-
ically governed, has been and is the Ger-
man ideal.

If, then, Germany wants what she calls
the freedom of the seas, it is solely as a
means whereby this ideal may receive
worldwide extension. The power of Na-
poleon never extended beyond the coast
line of Europe. Further progress was
barred by the British fleets and by them
alone. Germany is determined to endure
no such limitations; and if she cannot de-
feat her enemies at sea, at least she will
paralyze their sea power.

There is a characteristic simplicity in
the methods by which she sets about at-
taining this object. She poses as a re-
former of international law, though in-
ternational law has never bound her for
an hour. She objects to " economic pres-
sure " when it is exercised by a fleet,
though she sets no limit to the brutal
completeness with which economic pres-
sure may be imposed by an army. She
sighs over the suffering which war im-
poses upon peaceful commerce, though
her own methods of dealing with peace-
ful commerce would have wrung the con-
science of Captain Kidd. She denounces
the maritime methods of the Allies,
though in her efforts to defeat them she
is deterred neither by the rules of war,
the appeal of humanity, nor the rights of
neutrals.

It must be admitted, therefore, that it
is not the cause of peace, of progress, or
of liberty which preoccupies her when, in
the name of freedom, she urges funda-
mental changes in maritime practice.
Her manifest object is to shatter an ob-

720 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

stacle which now stands in her way, as
more than a hundred years ago it stood
in the way of the masterful genius who
was her oppressor and is her model.

Not along this path are peace and lib-
erty to be obtained. To paralyze naval
power and leave military power uncon-
trolled is surely the worst injury which
international law can inflict upon man-
kind.

A FORGOTTEN ASPECT

Let me confirm this truth by dwelling
for a moment on an aspect of it which is,
I think, too often forgotten. It should
be observed that even if the German
proposal were carried out in its entirety
it would do nothing to relieve the world
from the burden of armaments.

Fleets would still be indispensable.
But their relative value would suffer
change. They could no longer be used
to exercise pressure upon an enemy ex-
cept in conjunction with an army. The
gainers by the change would therefore
be the nations who possessed armies —
the military monarchies. Interference
with trade would be stopped, but oversea
invasion would be permitted. The pro-
posed change would therefore not merely
diminish the importance of sea power,
but it would dimmish it most in the case
of nonmilitary States, like America and
Britain.

Suppose, for example, that Germany,
in her desire to appropriate some Ger-
manized portions of South America, came
into conflict with the United States over
the Monroe Doctrine. The United States,
bound by the doctrine of " freedom of
the seas," could aim no blow at her
enemy until she herself had created a
large army and become for the time
being a military community. Her sea
power would be useless, or nearly so.
Her land power would not exist.

IF GERMANY RULED THE SEA

But more than this might happen. Let
us suppose the desired change had been
effected. Let us suppose that the mari-
time nations, accepting the new situation,
thought themselves relieved from all ne-
cessity of protecting their sea-borne com-
merce and arranged their program of
naval shipbuilding accordingly. For some
time it would probably proceed on legal

lines. Commerce, even hostile commerce,
would be unhampered. But a change
might happen. Some unforeseen circum-
stance might make the German General
Staff think it to be to the interest of
its nation to cast to the winds the " free-
dom of the seas " and, in defiance of the
new law, to destroy the trade of its
enemies.

Could anybody suggest after our expe-
rience in this war, after reading German
histories and German theories of politics,
that Germany would be prevented from
taking such a step by the mere fact that
it was a breach of international treaties
to which she was a party? She would
never hesitate — and the only result of the
cession by the pacific powers of their
maritime rights would be that the mili-
tary powers would seize the weapon for
their own purpose and turn it against
those who had too hastily abandoned it.

Thus we are forced to the sorrowful
recognition of the weakness of interna-
tional law so long as it is unsupported by
international authority.

While this state of things is permitted
to endure, drastic changes in interna-
tional law well may do more harm than
good ; for if the new rules should involve
serious limitations of belligerent powers,
they would be broken as soon as it suited
the interests of the aggressor; and his
victim would be helpless. Nothing could
be more disastrous. It is bad that law
should be defied. It is far worse that it
should injure the well-disposed. Yet this
is what would inevitably happen, since
law unsupported by authority will ham-
per everybody but the criminal.

THE ULTIMATE PROBLEM

Here we come face to face with the
great problem which lies behind all the
changing aspects of this tremendous war.
When it is brought to an end, how is civ-
ilized mankind so to reorganize itself
that similar catastrophes shall not be per-
mitted to recur?

The problem is insistent, though its
full solution may be beyond our powers
at this stage of our development.

But, surely, even now, it is fairly clear
that if substantial progress is to be made
toward securing the peace of the world
and a free development of its constituent

FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

721

nations, the United States of America
and the British Empire should explicitly
recognize, what all instinctively know,
that on these great subjects they share a
common ideal.

I am well aware that in even hinting
at the possibility of co-operation between
these two countries I am treading on
delicate ground. The fact that American
independence was wrested by force from
Great Britain colors the whole view which
some Americans take of the " natural "
relations between the two countries.
Others are impatient of anything which
they regard as a sentimental appeal to
community of race; holding that in re-
spect of important sections of the Amer-
ican people this community of race does
not in fact exist. Others, again, think
that any argument based on a similarity
of laws and institutions belittles the
greatness of America's contribution to
the political development of the modern
world.

IDEALS IN COMMON

Rightly understood, however, what I
have to say is quite independent of indi-
vidual views on any of these subjects. It
is based on the unquestioned fact that
the growth of British laws, British forms
of government, British literature and
modes of thought was the slow work of
centuries; that among the co-heirs of
these agelong labors were the great men
who founded the United States; and that
the two branches of the English-speak-
ing peoples, after the political separation,
developed along parallel lines. So it has
come about that, whether they be friendly
or quarrelsome, whether they rejoice in
their agreements or cultivate their differ-
ences, they can no more get rid of a cer-
tain fundamental similarity of outlook
than children born of the same parents
and brought up in the same home.
Whether, therefore, you study political
thought in Great Britain or America, in
Canada or in Australia, you will find it
presents the sharpest and most irrecon-
cilable contrast to political thought in
the Prussian Kingdom, or in that Ger-
man Empire into which, with no modifi-
cation of aims or spirit, the Prussian
Kingdom has developed. Holding, as I

do, that this war is essentially a struggle
between these two ideals of ancient
growth I cannot doubt that in the result
of that struggle America is no less con-
cerned than the British Empire.

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS

Now, if this statement, which repre-
sents the most unchanging element in
my political creed, has in it any element
of truth, how does it bear upon the nar-
rower issues upon which I dwelt in the
earlier portions of this interview?

My own conclusions are these: If in our
time any substantial effort is to be made
toward insuring the permanent triumph
of the Anglo-Saxon ideal, the great com-
munities which accept it must work to-
gether. And in working together they
must bear in mind that law is not enough.
Behind law there must be power. It is
good that arbitration should be encour-
aged. It is good that the accepted prac-
tices of warfare should become ever more
humane. It is good that before peace is
broken the would-be belligerents should
be compelled to discuss their differences
in some congress of the nations. It is
good that the security of the smaller
States should be fenced round with pe-
culiar care. But all the precautions are
mere scraps of paper unless they can be
enforced. We delude ourselves if wa
think we are doing God service merely
by passing good resolutions. What is
needed now, and will be needed so long
as militarism is unconquered, is the ma-
chinery for enforcing them, and the con-
trivance of such a machinery will tax to
its utmost the world's statesmanship.

I have no contribution to make to the
solution of the problem. Yet this much
seems clear. If there is to be any effect-
ive sanction behind the desire of the Eng-
lish-speaking peoples to preserve the
world's peace and the free development
of the nations, that sanction must consist
largely in the potential use of sea power.
For two generations and more after the
last great war Britain was without a
rival on the sea. During this period Bel-
gium became a State, Greece secured her
independence, the unity of Italy was
achieved, the South American republics
were established, the Monroe Doctrine

722 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

came into being. To me it seems that
the lesson to be drawn from history by
those who love peace, freedom, and
security is not that Britain and America
should be deprived, or should deprive
themselves, of the maritime powers they

now possess, but that, if possible, those
powers should be organized in the in-
terests of an ideal common to the two
States, an ideal upon whose realization
the happiness and peace of the world
must largely depend.

Text of American Note to Great Britain on

Seizures of Mail

[Delivered in duplicate to the Governments of Great Britain and France]

Department of State,
Washing-ton, May 24, 1916.
Excellency :

I HAVE the honor to acknowledge receipt
of your Excellency's note of April 3 last,
transmitting a memorandum dated Feb.
15, 1916, and communicated in substance to
the American Ambassador in London on Feb.
28, in which are stated the contentions of the
British and French Governments in regard to
the right to detain and examine parcel and
letter mails en route by sea between the
United States and Europe.

After a discussion of the use of the mails
for the transmission of parcels and of the
limitations to be placed on " inviolable mail,"
the joint memorandum of Feb. 15 closes with
the following assertions:

" 1. That from the standpoint of their right
of visitation and eventual arrest and seizure,
merchandise shipped in post parcels need not
and shall not be treated otherwise than
merchandise shipped in any other manner.

" 2. That the inviolability of postal cor-
respondence stipulated by the eleventh con-
vention of The Hague of 1907 does not in any
way affect the right of the allied Govern-
ments to visit and, if occasion arise, arrest
and seize merchandise hidden in the wrappers,
envelopes, or letters contained in the mail
bags.

" 3. That true to their engagements and re-
spectful of genuine ' correspondence ' the
allied Governments will continue, for the
present, to refrain on the high seas from seiz-
ing and confiscating such correspondence,
letters, or dispatches, and will insure their
speediest possible transmission as soon as
the sincerity of their character shall have
been ascertained."

In reply the Government of the United
States desires to state that it does not con-
sider that the Postal Union Convention of
1906 necessarily applies to the interferences
by the British and French Governments with
the oversea transportation of mails of which
the Government of the United States com-
plans. Furthermore, the allied powers ap-
pear to have overlooked the admission of the
Government of the United States that- post
parcels may be treated as merchandise sub-

ject to the exercise of belligerent rights as
recognized by international law. But the
Government of the United States does not
admit that such parcels are subject to the
" exercise of the rights of police supervision,
visitation, and eventual seizure which belongs
to belligerents as to all cargoes on the high
seas," as asserted in the joint note under
acknowledgment.

It is noted with satisfaction that the Brit-
ish and French Governments do not claim,
and, in the opinion of this Government, prop-
erly do not claim, that their so-called
" blockade " measures are sufficient grounds
upon which to base a right to interfere with
all classes of mail matter in transit to or
from the Central Powers. On the contrary,
their contention appears to be that, as
" genuine correspondence " is under conven-
tional stipulation " inviolable," mail matter
of other classes is subject; to detention and
examination. While the Government of the
United States agrees that " genuine corre-
spondence " mail is inviolable, it does not
admit that belligerents may search other pri-
vate sea-borne mails for any other purpose
than to discover whether they contain articles
of enemy ownership carried on belligerent
vessels or articles of contraband transmitted
under sealed covers as letter mail, though
they may intercept at sea all mails coming
out of and going into ports of the enemy's
coasts which are effectively blockaded. The
Governments of the United States, Great
Britain, and France, however, appear to be
in substantial agreement as to principle. The
method of applying the principle is the chief
cause of difference.

Though giving assurances that they con-
sider "genuine correspondence" to be "in-
violable," and that they will, " true to their
engagements," refrain " on the high seas "
from seizing and confiscating such cor-
respondence, the allied Governments proceed
to deprive neutral Governments of the bene-
fits of these assurances by seizing and con-
fiscating mail from vessels in port instead
of at sea. They compel neutral ships without
just cause to enter their own ports, or they
induce shipping lines, through some form of

AMERICAN NOTE TO GREAT BRITAIN ON SEIZURE OF MAILS 723

duress, to send their mail ships via British
ports, or they detain all vessels merely call-
ing at British ports, thus acquiring by force
or unjustifiable means an illegal jurisdiction.
Acting upon this enforced jurisdiction, the
authorities remove all mail, genuine cor-
respondence as well as post parcels, take
them to London, where every piece, even
though of neutral origin and destination, is
opened and critically examined to determine
the " sincerity of their character," in ac-
cordance with the interpretation given that
undefined phrase by the British and French
censors. Finally the expurgated remainder
is forwarded, frequently after irreparable
delay, to its destination. Ships are detained
en route to or from the United States or to
and from other neutral countries, and mails
are held and delayed for several days, and,
in some cases, for weeks and even months,
even though not routed to ports of North
Europe via British ports. This has been the
procedure which has been practiced since the
announcement of Feb. 15, 1916. To some
extent the same practice was followed before
that date, calling forth the protest of this
Government on Jan. 4, 1916. But to that
protest the memorandum under acknowledg-
ment makes no reference and is entirely
unresponsive.

The Government of the United States must
again insist with emphasis that the British
and French Governments do not obtain right-
ful jurisdiction of ships by forcing or induc-
ing them to visit their ports for the purpose
of seizing their mails, or thereby obtain
greater belligerent rights as to such ships
than they could exercise on the high seas, for
there is, in the opinion of the Government of
the United States, no legal distinction between
the seizure of mails at sea, which is an-
nounced as abandoned, and their seizure
from vessels voluntarily or involuntarily in
port.

The British and French practice amounts
to an unwarranted limitation on the use by
neutrals of the world's highway for the trans-
mission of correspondence. The practice
actually followed by the allied powers must
be said to justify the conclusion, therefore,
that the announcement^ Feb. 15 was merely
notice that one illegal practice had been
abandoned to make place for the develop-
ment of another more onerous and vexatious
in character.

The present practice is a violation not only
of the spirit of the announcement of Feb. 15
but of the rule of The Hague Convention
upon which it is concededly based. Aside
from this it is a violation of the prior practice
of nations which Great Britain and her allies
have in the past insisted to establish and
maintain, notwithstanding the statement in
the memorandum " that as late as 1907 the
letters and dispatches themselves could be
seized and confiscated."

During the war between the United States
and Mexico the United States forces allowed

British steamers to enter and depart from
the port of Vera Cruz without molesting the
mails intended for inland points. During the
American civil war Lord Russell endeavored
to induce the United States to concede that
" her Majesty's mails on board a private
vessel should be exempted from visitation or
detention." This exemption of mails was
urged in October, 1862, in the case of British
mails on board the Adela. On Oct. 31 Sec-
retary Seward announced that " public mails
of any friendly or neutral power duly certified
or authenticated as such shall not be searched
or opened, but be put as speedily as may be
convenient on the way to their designated
destination." In accordance with this an-
nouncement the Government of the United
States in the case of the British steamship
Peterhoff, which had been seized with her
mails against the protest of her Majesty's
Government, had her mails forwarded to
destination unopened.

The same rule was followed by France, as
I am advised, in the Franco-Prussian war of
1870; by the United States in the Spanish-
American war of 1898; by Great Britain in
the South African war, in the case of the Ger-
man mail steamers Bundesrath and General ;
by Japan, and substantially by Russia, in the
Russo-Japanese war of 1914. And even in
the present war, as the memorandum of Great
Britain and France states, their enemy, Ger-
many, has desisted from the practice of in-
terfering with neutral mails, even on board
belligerent steamers. This is illustrated by
the case of the French steamer Floride, cap-
tured by the auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel
Friedrich, cited by the British and French
Governments in support of their argument
regarding parcel mails. In this case the letter
mails of the Floride, amounting to 144 sacks,
were forwarded to their destination by the
commander at the first opportunity upon ar-
riving in the United States. It would seem,
therefore, to be conclusively established that
the interferences with mails of which this
Government justly complains are wrong in
principle and in practice.

The arbitrary methods employed by the
British and French Governments have re-
sulted most disastrously to citizens of the
United States. Important papers which can
never be duplicated, or can be duplicated only
with great difficulty, such as United States
patents for inventions, rare documents, legal
papers relating to the settlement of estates,
powers of attorney, fire insurance claims, in-
come tax returns, and similar matters, have
been lost.

Delays in receiving: shipping documents
have caused great loss and inconvenience by
preventing prompt delivery of goods.

In the case of the Macniff Horticultural
Company of New York large shipments of
plants and bulbs from Holland were, I am
informed, frozen on the wharves because
possession could not be obtained in the ab-
sence of documents relating to them which

724 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

had been removed from the Nieuw Amster-
dam, Costerdyk, and Rotterdam.

Business opportunities are lost "by failure
to transmit promptly bids, specifications, and
contracts.

The Standard Underground Cable Company
of Pittsburgh, for example, sent by mail a
tender and specifications for certain pro-
posed electrical works to be constructed in
Christiania; after several weeks of waiting
the papers have failed to arrive. The Amer-
ican company was told that the bids could
not be longer held open and the contract was
awarded to a British competitor.

Checks, drafts, money orders, securities,
and similar property are lost or detained for
weeks and months.

Business correspondence relating1 to legiti-
mate and bona fide trade between neutral
countries, correspondence of a personal na-
ture, and also certain official correspondence,
such as money order lists and other matter
forwarded by Government departments, are
detained, lost, or possibly destroyed. For
instance, the Postmaster General informs me
that certain international money order lists
from the United States to Germany, Greece,
and other countries, and from Germany to
the United States, sent through the mails,
have not reached their destination, though
dispatched several months ago. It was neces-
sary to have some of these lists duplicated
and again dispatched by the steamship
Frederick VIII., which sailed from New York
on April 19, and from which all the mails in-
tended for Germany have been taken and
held in British jurisdiction.

As a further example of the delay and loss
consequent upon the British practice, the
Postmaster General also sends me a copy
of a letter from the British Postal Adminis-
tration admitting that the mails were re-
moved from the steamer Medan in the Downs
on Jan. 30 last and not forwarded until some
time " between the 2d of February and the
2d of March," and that 182 bags of these
mails " were lost during transmission to
Holland on the 20th day of February by the
Dutch steamship Mecklenburg." The Medan
arrived safely at Rotterdam a day or two
after she left the Downs.

Numerous complaints similar to the fore-
going have been received by this Government,
the details of which are available, but I
believe I have cited sufficient facts to show
the unprecedented and vexatious nature of
the interference with mails persisted in by
British and French authorities.

Not only are American commercial interests
injured but rights of property are violated,
and the rules of international law and cus-
tom are palpably disregarded. I can only
add that this continuing offense has led to
such losses to American citizens and to a
possible responsibility of the United States
to repair them that this Government will be
compelled in the near future to press claims
for full reclamation upon the attention of his

Majesty's Government and that of the French
Republic.

The principle being plain and definite, and
the present practice of the Governments of
Great Britain and France being clearly in
contravention of the principle, I will state
more in detail the position of the Government
of the -United States in regard to the treat-
ment of certain classes of sealed mails under a
strict application of the principle upon which
our Governments seem to be in general accord.
The Government of the United States is in-
clined to the opinion that the class of mail
matter which includes stocks, bonds, coupons,
and similar securities is to be regarded as of
the same nature as merchandise or other
articles of property and subject to the same
exercise of belligerent rights. Money orders,
checks, drafts, notes, and other negotiable
instruments which may pass as the equivalent
of money are, it is considered, also to be
classed as merchandise. Correspondence, in-
cluding shipping documents, money order
lists, and papers of that character, even
though relating to- " enemy supplies or ex-
ports," unless carried on the same ship as
the property referred to, are, in the opinion
of this Government, to be regarded as
" genuine correspondence," and entitled to
unmolested passage.

The Government of the United States, in
view of the improper methods employed by
the British and French authorities in inter-
rupting mails passing between the United
States and other neutral countries and be-
tween the United States and the enemies of
Great Britain, can no longer tolerate the
wrongs which citizens of the United States
have suffered and continue to suffer through
these methods. To submit to a lawless prac-
tice of this character would open the door to
repeated violations of international law by
the belligerent powers on the ground of
military necessity of which the violator would
be the sole judge. Manifestly a neutral
nation cannot permit its rights on the high
seas to be determined by belligerents or the
exercise of those rights to be permitted or
denied arbitrarily by the Government of a
warring nation. The rights of neutrals are as
sacred as the rights of belligerents and must
be as strictly observed.

The Government of the United States, con-
fident in the regard for international law and
the rights of neutrals which the British and
French Governments have so often proclaimed,
and the disregard of which they have urged
so vigorously against their enemies in the
present war, expects the present practice of
the British and French authorities in the treat-
ment of mails from or to the United States
to cease, and belligerent rights, as exercised,
to conform to the principle governing the pas-
sage of mail matter and to the recognized
practice of nations. Only a radical change in
the present British and French policy, re-
storing to the United States its full rights
as a neutral power, will satisfy this Govern-
ment. ROBERT LANSING.

Cabinet Ministers on Peace Terms

Official Views on Both Sides

CURRENT HISTORY published last month an important statement by Sir Edward Grey
on the causes of the war and the Allies' terms of peace. This has elicited a direct reply
from the German Chancellor, which is presented herewith, along with a symposium of sim-
ilar utterances. The second one from the German Chancellor, delivered after the naval
tattle in the North Sea, reflects the result of that battle in its more defiant tone. In general
it will be seen that Germany desires peace on the basis of " the war map " as it standsf
and lays upon the Allies the blame for continuing hostilities.

Sir Edward Grey, on the other hand, told the -House of Commons on May 24 that all
peace talk was idle because the German people were being " fed with lies." In substance
he said: " The Allies are not going to be beaten. The first step toward peace will come
when the German Government begins to recognize that fact." Premier Briand of France f
like President Poincare, says that lasting peace can come only through Entente victory.
Mr. Lloyd George, stating the case in a different way, says that a crushing military defeat
of Germany alone can insure lasting peace.

President Wilson's tentative proffer of American mediation, made in his address before
the League to Enforce Peace, attracted far more attention abroad than it did at home.
The speech was printed in full throughout Europe, and called forth a storm of comment,
both favorable and unfavorable. Strong objections to the United States as a medium for
peace negotiations came alike from British and from German leaders— an indication that
this country has succeeded fairly well in being neutral in its official acts. The whole ex-
hibit is an interesting proof of the degree to which the American press is becoming a
forum for peace discussions between the belligerents.

Peace on a Basis of the Real Facts

By Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg

German Imperial Chancellor

statement made to the Berlin representative of The New York World, May 22, and re-
published in CURRENT HISTORY by special permission. Copyrighted, 1916]

AI^TER twenty-two months of ter- the end England and France will " dic-

.rible war, after sacrifices of mill- tate peace to Germany."

ions of men, dead, wounded, or Sir Edward Grey speaks of the future,

disabled for life, after forcing a of peace, but adds that Prussian militar-

heavy debt in blood and treasure that ism must first be crushed. I must say

places a mortgage upon the brow and that I am astonished and wonder how a

shoulders of the present and future gene- statesman like Sir Edward Grey can still

rations, it is beginning to dawn upon talk of any distinction and difference be-

England that the German people are not tween Prussia and the rest of Germany.

to be crushed, that the German Nation I am well aware of the ignorance about

cannot be destroyed. Germany and German conditions that

Having learned also the terrible cost prevailed before the war in England as

to Europe and the world, Sir Edward well as in France, and that the English

Grey now declares that British states- and French war parties had speculated

men never did want to crush and de- heavily upon internal dissensions in Ger-

stroy Germany, notwithstanding the many. But I had thought that the mag-

utterances of his confreres in the Brit- nificent and heroic unity of the entire

ish Cabinet and the English press to the German peoples in defense of their home

contrary, and in face of the inducement and Fatherland had opened the eyes of

held out to the French people by Pres- the gentleman.

ident Poincaire in his speech of a few As to " militarism," let us see. Who

days ago that if they only will endure to was it that made and followed the policy

726 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

of militarism in the last twenty years,
England or Germany?

Just think back of Egypt. Recall
Fashoda. Ask the French people which
nation at that time, through its warlike
threats and attitude, forced upon France
the humiliation long known to them as
"the shame of Fashoda," so keenly and
bitterly felt by the French. Recall the
Boer war, with the conquest and destruc-
tion of the liberties of free peoples and
small and weak nations. Remember
Algeciras, where England, according to
Sir Edward Grey's own statement, had
given France to understand that in the
event of war she could reckon upon Eng-
land's assistance, and the General Staffs
of the two countries began to confer upon
plans in that sense.

Then came the Bosnia crisis. It was
Germany, not England, who averted war
at that time. It was Germany who moved
Russia to accept her mediation proposal.

England, on the other hand, let her
displeasure be known in St. Petersburg
over this peaceful solution. Sir Edward
Grey, as reliably known to me, even
stated upon this occasion that he believed
that English public opinion would have
approved England's participation on the
side of Russia if it had come to war.

We were in a fair way of adjusting our
differences with France through peaceful
negotiations when England intervened
(in the Agadir crisis) with the well-
known warlike speech and threats of
Lloyd George which brought up the black
warclouds.

Sir Edward Grey has declared that
England never had any evil intentions
toward Germany and that there was no
coalition against Germany. That state-
ment of the British Foreign Secretary
requires but a one-word answer, and that
word is " einkreisungspolitik " — that is,
England's " isolation policy."

[This refers to the supposed policy of
King Edward VII. of isolating Germany.]

The entire world knows through the
published documents from the Belgian
secret archives that neutral statesmen,
as well as Belgian diplomats, not only
in Berlin but in Paris and London, saw
in the isolation policy of England nothing
but an imminent danger of war.

What I could do to meet this danger
and to avert the threatening and immi-
nent developments I did. The neutrality
agreement which I proposed to Lord
Haldane would not only have insured
peace for Europe, but for the entire
world. England rejected it.

[When reminded of Grey's statement
that Germany had demanded the uncon-
ditional neutrality of England, even in
case Germany provoked a war on the
Continent, the Chancellor continued] :

I made public in the Reichstag Aug.
19, 1915, the exact text of the formula I
suggested to the English Cabinet in the
negotiations at that time. The last
formula read: " England will maintain
this friendly neutrality should a war be
forced upon Germany." Mind you,
"forced!"

I dislike to come back to these things
which have been thoroughly discussed
before the entire world, but since you
interrogate me as to Sir Edward Grey's
remarks, I am compelled to establish that
they are not in accordance with the facts.

Let me make one more and a last re-
mark about the past. Again and again,
Sir Edward Grey renews his assertion
that Germany could have averted this
war had it accepted England's proposal
for a conference. How could I accept
this proposal in the face of the mobiliza-
tion measures of Russia's vast army in
full headway?

Despite Russia's official denial, not-
withstanding the fact that the formal
mobilization orders were not issued until
the night of July 30, it was definitely
known to us, and has since been con-
firmed, that the Russian Government al-
ready on July 25 began mobilizing in ac-
cordance with a decision arrived at when
Sir Edward Grey's proposal was made.

Assuming that I had accepted this pro-
posal, and after negotiations of two or
three weeks — during which Russia stead-
ily and rapidly continued to assemble her
armies, vastly superior numerically, on
our borders — the conference had failed.
Would England perhaps have saved us
from a Russian invasion or come to our
assistance with her fleet and army ? In
view of the subsequent events I doubt
that very much.

CABINET MINISTERS ON PEACE TERMS

727

With two frontiers to defend, Ger-
many could not engage in debates the
outcome of which was extremely problem-
atical while possible foes were utilizing
the time to mobilize armies with which
to invade us.

In the critical days of July, 1914, Sir
Edward Grey himself admitted that my
counterproposal of a direct exchange
of views between the Cabinets of St.
Petersburg and Vienna was better cal-
culated to adjust the Austro-Serbian
conflict than his conference proposal.
This direct exchange of views, suggested
by me after no small difficulties had
been overcome, was in a fair way of
being carried out when Russia's formal
mobilization of her entire army, notwith-
standing her explicit assurances to the
contrary, made war unavoidable.

Had England spoken an earnest word
at St. Petersburg at that juncture the
war would have been averted. From a
confidential report of the Belgian Minis-
ter in St. Petersburg the world knows
that the Russian war party obtained the
upper hand from the moment it knew it
could count upon English help in the
war. Why did England deal in that man-
ner? Let me recapitulate briefly what
English statesmen have said on this
point. On Aug. 3, 1914, Sir Edward Grey
declared that England would suffer
hardly less if it participated in the war
than if it kept out. At the same time
he dwelt upon the great and vital inter-
ests England had in Belgium. Therefore
not for the sake of Belgium, but for the
sake of England Sir Edward Grey con-
sidered it advisable that England should
enter the war. * * *

Sir Edward Grey wants permanent
peace. I, too, want permanent peace. I
have repeatedly expressed myself in that
sense since the beginning of the war.
But I fear we will not come nearer to the
peace desired, I believe, by all peoples so
long as the responsible statesmen of the
Entente Powers indulge in and confine
themselves to observations about Prus-
sian militarism and to pathetic declama-
tions about their own superiority and

perfection, or, even as Sir Edward Grey
did in this interview, desire to favor Ger-
many without a change in her internal
political affairs and conditions.

In answer to the English Minister —
who, I should think, would be rather re-
served and careful on that point in view
of conditions in Ireland — I only want to
say that Germany has home rule which
it independently administers. Inciden-
tally, let me add one thing. Did the demo-
cratic Constitution of England hinder
English statesmen from making and con-
cluding secret arrangements and agree-
ments with Russia and France, which
were one of the essential causes of this
war?

But, as I have already said to you, a
general press polemic and public speeches
will only tend still more to intensify the
hatred among peoples. And that is not
a way that leads to the ideal conditions
of Sir Edward Grey, when free peoples
and nations, with equality of rights and
privileges, will limit their armaments
and solve their differences and disputes
through arbitration's decisions instead of
war.

I have twice publicly stated that Ger-
many has been and is prepared to dis-
cuss the termination of the war upon a
basis that offers guarantee against fur-
ther attack from a coalition of her
enemies and insures peace to Europe.
You have read President Poincare's an-
swer to that.

One thing I do know — only when states-
men of the warring nations come down to
a basis of real facts, when they take the
war situation as every war map shows it
to be, when, with honest and sincere will
they are prepared to terminate this ter-
rible bloodshed and are ready to discuss
the war and peace problems with one
another in a practical manner, only then
will we be nearing peace.

Whoever is not prepared to do that
has the responsibility for it if Europe
continues to bleed and tear itself to
pieces. I cast that responsibility far
from myself.

German Chancellor's Reichstag Speech of
June 5, 1916

FIVE days after the great naval bat-
tle in the North Sea the Imperial
Chancellor again discussed peace in
the Reichstag in a more defiant tone,
declaring that any further suggestions
of peace by Germany would be " futile
and evil." His address is said to have
stirred the German Nation deeply. It
was applauded in the Reichstag, except
by the Conservatives and the Social-
ists who had seceded with Dr. Lieb-
knecht.

" Six months ago, on Dec. 9," said Dr.
von Bethmann Hollweg, " discussing our
military situation, I spoke here for the
first time of our readiness for peace. I
could do so in entire confidence that our
war situation would continue to improve.
Developments have confirmed this con-
fidence. We have made further progress
on all fronts. We are stronger than we
were before.

" If, with this development before my
eyes, I declared that we were ready for
peace, I need have no regret for my
statement, even if our offer evoked no
response from our enemies.

" In the critical times of July, 1914, it
was the duty of every responsible states-
man before God, his country, and his
conscience to leave nothing untried that
could preserve peace with honor. We
.also desired after the successful repulse
of our enemies to neglect nothing that
was calculated to shorten the terrible
sufferings experienced by the people of
Europe in such a conflagration.

" I told an American journalist that
peace negotiations could only reach a
settlement if they were conducted by
statesmen of the belligerent powers on
the basis of the real war situation as
shown by the war map. This proposition
was rejected by the other side. They will
not recognize the war map, as they hope
to improve it in their own favor. But it
has constantly changed in our favor. We
have added to it since that remark was
made. The surrender of the British

Army at Kut-el-Amara, defeats with
tremendous losses of the French at Ver-
dun, the collapse of the Russian offensive
in March, the mighty thrust forward of
our allies against Italy, the strengthen-
ing of our lines before Saloniki, and just
now we have received news of the naval
battle off Jutland with jubilant and
grateful hearts.

" This is how the war map looks now.
If our various enemies desire to shut
their eyes to it, then we must and shall
fight on until final victory.

" We did what we could to pave the
way to peace, but our enemies repelled
us with scorn. Consequently all further
talk of peace initiated by us becomes
futile and evil.

" Some statesmen in England and else-
where have made attempts to feel the
pulse of our people, and, while making
contrasts between our different States
as political units, have tried to console
themselves into the belief that our strik-
ing force was near the breaking point.
These gentlemen are indulging in strange
notions. If they do not desire to deceive
themselves they will notice only how
firmly beats the heart of the German
people. There is no external influence
that can shake our unity even in the
slightest degree.

" Certainly we have had our differences
of opinion on such matters as the U-boat
question and the question of our relations
with America, but I declare emphatically
that each side in these controversies has
respected the convictions of the other and
that we have remained always one on the
great national question.

" We discussed these matters in com-
mittee and decided it was impossible to
satisfy the demands for a public an-
nouncement. We were, I believe, abso-
lutely agreed that in these cases ex-
haustive public discussion would damage
the country. Nevertheless, I want to say
that I, too, long for the time when the
administration of the censorship can

CABINET MINISTERS ON PEACE TERMS

729

abandon the restrictions and inconven-
iences which are at present inseparable
from it.

" I in no way desire to resurrect the
censorship of debates. Let me say this
much to remove any doubt. Each politi-
cal measure, without exception, in this
time of war, has had only one object in
view, namely, to bring the war to a
glorious end. The censorship should be
carried on from the same point of view,
whether it be military or political.

"I shall endeavor to see that where
the connection of political matters with
the war is only slight the pencil of the
censor shall be employed as lightly as
possible.

"As far as I am concerned the news-
papers will find as few shackles as pos-
sible and a just and impartial apprecia-
tion of their aims. The existence of the
press censorship has recently given rise
to a new nuisance, namely, the circu-
lation of numerous private pamphlets,
some without names attached, as if the
confidence of the people could be thus
destroyed, although this was the very
purpose of these pamphlets. As an ex-
ample of this class I take a pamphlet
which was recently widely circulated. The
writer, under the guise of an anxious pa-
triot, has collected from the political his-
tory preceding the war a chain of gross
untruths and distortions."

The Chancellor proceeded to give illus-
trations of the alleged falsehoods in the
pamphlet. One of the typical statements
was that the Chancellor nearly collapsed
when the English Ambassador announced
the breach of relations between Great
Britain and Germany. The speaker de-
clared that this was absolutely false.

" As a matter of fact," he said, " Sir
William Goschen, at his farewell visit,
was personally so deeply affected that
I have, from a natural feeling of pro-
priety, avoided speaking about it."

The Chancellor replied to a pamphle-
teer's charge that in the opening days
of the war he had believed England
would have remained Germany's friend
or at least neutral, and that he had
wasted three days parleying with Eng-
land, three days which meant an enor-

mous prolongation of the war because
the first blow was not struck promptly
enough.

" I know that my attempts at an un-
derstanding with England," he said,
" are my capital offense, but what was
Germany's position in the period prior
to the war? France and Russia were
united in an indissoluble alliance. There
was a strong anti-German party in Rus-
sia and an influential and growing sec-
tion in France which was urging revenge
and war. Russia could only be held in
check if the hope of English aid was
successfully taken from them. They
would then have never ventured on war.
If I wished to work against war I had
to attempt to enter into relationships
with England.

" I made this attempt in the face of
the development of an English policy
which was hostile to Germany and of
which I was entirely cognizant. I am
not ashamed of my conduct, even though
it proved abortive. He who on that ac-
count charges me with being the cause
of the world catastrophe, with its heca-
tombs of human sacrifices, may make his
accusation before God. I shall await
God's judgment calmly."

The Chancellor appealed for the unity
of all parties, declaring that political
lines ought to be obliterated during the
prosecution of the war. In conclusion,
he said:

"I see the entire nation in heroic
stature fighting for its future, our sons
and brothers fighting and dying side by
side. There we see the equal love for
home in all. The sacred flame of love of
home steels every -heart, so that they defy
death and suffer death in thousands.
Only a heart completely dried up can
escape the affecting impression of the
great primitive strength of this people.

"My belief in my people and my love
for my people gives me a conviction firm
as a rock that we shall fight and con-
quer, as we have fought and conquered
hitherto. Our enemies wish to let it go
to the end. We fear neither death nor
devil, not even the hunger devil which
they wish to send into our country. The
men who fight out there around Verdun,

730

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

who fight under Hindenburg, our proud
bluejackets, who showed Albion that rats
bite, are fashioned from a breed that
knows how to bear privations also. These
privations are here. I admit it calmly
and openly, even to foreign countries,
but we will bear them.

" In this fight against hunger we will
also make progress. Gracious heaven
allowed a good harvest this year. It will
not be worse, but better, than in the pre-
vious hard year. The calculation of our

enemies on our economic difficulties will
prove deceptive.

" Another of their calculations was
sharply corrected by our young navy last
week. This victory will not make us
boastful. We know that it does not mean
that England is beaten. But it is a token
of our future wherein Germany will win
for herself, and also for smaller peoples,
full equality of rights and lasting free-
dom of sea routes, now closed by Eng-
land's sole domination."

Why Peace Talk at Present Is Idle

By Sir Edward Grey

British Minister of Foreign Affairs

In an impromptu speech in the House of Commons on May 24 Sir Edward Grey answered
the German Chancellor — likewise certain home critics. Arthur Ponsonby, Liberal member
from Stirling, Scotland, had criticised Sir Edward for " employing- the American press as
a platform " and slighting the House of Commons. The essential -portions of his pithy
reply are here printed in full.

MEMBERS of the German Govern-
ment have given interviews ' from
the beginning of the war over and
over again to the people of the United
States, and now, when one of us tries
to defend his own country in a neutral
country against statements made by the
German Government, the honorable mem-
ber reproaches me with want of respect.
These are no days for pedantry of that
kind.

I care not how often I say it — this
war might have been avoided by accept-
ing the conference we proposed. Why
v/as not that conference accepted? Be-
cause there was not good-will.

It had been preceded by a conference
on the Balkan question only shortly
before. I wish the German and Aus-
trian Governments would publish the re-
ports of their Ambassadors with regard
to the part we played in that conference.
I have never seen them, but I am quite
sure that nobody went through that con-
ference without being prepared to bear
testimony to the fact that the attitude
of the British Government was one of
entire good faith all through — and when
the German Chancellor says that another
conference would have been used against

Germany, that advantage would have
been taken to prepare for war, and so
forth — things which he did not say at
the time — I say that the attitude we had
observed through the conference which
had just closed entitles us to say that a
conference as it was proposed on the eve
of this war was one which those who
had experience of the previous one ought
to have accepted with confidence and
good-will.

If there was a diplomatic failure, that
accounts for how it came about. It
was not our failure.

I cannot agree with the honorable
member (Mr. Ponsonby) that the inter-
view published with the German Chancel-
lor, or the speech made by the German
Chancellor last month shows that dispo-
sition for peace which he seemed to find
in it. If Germany is prepared for all
the terms which the honorable member
says, why does she not say so? He re-
proaches us with letting etiquette stand
in the way.

Is it etiquette that stands in the way
of the German Government making the
statements which the honorable member
suggests on their behalf? I really
think that, in a time of war, the Gov-

CABINET MINISTERS ON PEACE TERMS

731

ernment of the enemy might be allowed
to speak for itself.

I find only one thing new in this in-
terview with the German Chancellor—-
the charge that our attitude was belli-
cose in the negotiations with regard to
Bosnia when Austria annexed Bosnia.
That is new. It is a first-class lie. The
idea that we attempted to urge Russia
to war, that we said this country would
be ready to go to war about Bosnia,
that that was our attitude, is the direct
contrary of the truth.

When you talk about appealing to rea-
son, about getting reason to triumph over
might, and so forth, and about reasoning
with the German people, you cannot rea-
son with the German people so long as
they are fed with lies and know nothing
of the truth.

So long as these lies are multiplied —
I suppose this new one has been sup-
plied to the German Chancellor out of
that laboratory which is always at work
in some diplomatic quarter in Germany
producing these things — as long as you
have that sort of thing going on you
cannot possibly reason with your enemy,
and your enemy does not want to be
reasoned with.

What do we find in the German Chan-
cellor's interview? As I read it, it
means that those people are responsible
for the continuance of the war who will
not accept Germany's terms. We are to
look at the map of the military situa-
tion as it is today to see what those
terms should be; and we have had the
German Chancellor's preceding speech as
to what those terms should be. They are
terms victorious to Germany, safeguard-
ing Germany's interests, taking no ac-
count of other people's interests, and
leaving, if they were accepted, the other
States of Europe at her mercy whenever
she chose to pursue an aggressive policy
toward them again.

It is childish to say that because Ger-
many's enemies will not accept the terms
of peace that suit Germany without re-
gard to their own interests, therefore
they are responsible for prolonging the
war.

The real thing responsible more than
anything else for prolonging the war at
this moment is that the German Govern-
ment goes on telling its people that they
have won the war, or that if they have
not won it they are going to win it
next week, and that we, the Allies, are
beaten.

The facts are that the Allies arc not
beaten, and they are not going to be
beaten. The first step toward peace will
be when the German Government begins
to recognize that fact.

If any of the Allies have a special
right at this moment to speak with re-
gard to peace it is the Government of
France, on whom for some weeks past
the concentrated fury of the German at-
tack has been falling. The prowess of
the French Army during the long battle
of Verdun is saving France and saving
her allies, too.

Is this a moment for us to do anything
but concentrate on expressing our deter-
mination to give the fullest support in
our power to those allies? If any one
has a right to speak on behalf of peace
at this moment it is the Government of
France. The Prime Minister of France
has spoken, and if the report in today's
paper be accurate, as I believe it to be,
he has said: "What will the generations
to come say if we let escape the occasion
to establish firmly a durable peace, a
peace which must be based on interna-
tional right ? "

That is what we feel, too, and, with
our allies, deeply as we desire to see
the fruts of peace established, as the
honorable member for Leicester described
them — in a peace that shall endure and
save the world from such a catastrophe
as this war in future ever again — I be-
lieve the duty of diplomacy at the present
moment is to maintain, as it has com-
pletely maintained, the solidarity of the
Allies and to give the utmost support it
can to the military and naval measures
which are necessary, and taken by the
Allies in common, to bring this war to
a stage, which it has not reached yet, at
which that prospect of a secure and dura-
ble peace will be made a reality.

' Britain Will Fight It Out

By David Lloyd George

Minister of Munitions
[Part of an address to his constituents in Wales]

WE have accomplished enormous re-
sults in the raising of armies
and in their equipment when you
consider that we began with about the
tiniest army in Europe, a smaller army
than the Serbian Army, and we have
now got one of the greatest and best
equipped armies in the world. Still, I
agree that in conducting a war a Gov-
ernment should not only be resolute, but
appear resolute.

War is a terrible business. But men
will face all its horrors if they have con-
fidence in their leaders. But if there is
hesitation, if there is timidity, if there is
the appearance of irresolution, the
bravest hearts will fail, and the spirit
of the nation is the propellant of its
armies. Therefore it is important, what-
ever happens, that you should have con-
fidence that the Government is doing its
best in the firmest and most resolute
manner to conduct the war.

That is why I have had no sympathy
with those who seem to think that be-
cause war is hateful you ought to fight
it with a sort of savor of regret in your
actions. Doubting hand never yet struck
a firm blow.

In any action which I have taken
since the war I am not conscious of hav-
ing departed from any principle which
I ever enunciated to you on this plat-
form. I came into politics to fight for
the under dog, and it has been all the
same to me whether he was an under-
paid agricultural laborer, a sick work-
man, an infirm and broken old man or
woman, who had given their lives to the
country, a poor slum dweller, or a small
nation harried by voracious empires. In
fighting this war I have simply, in my
judgment, been carrying out the prin-
ciples which I have advocated on this
platform now for thirty years of my life.

I have always felt that the life of this
empire was at stake. And I know how

much depends on that life. With all its
faults, the British Empire, here and
across the seas, stands for freer, better,
nobler conditions of life for man.

I believed that in this war freedom
was at stake. So I have thrown myself
with all my heart, my soul, and my
strength into working for victory. Nor
have I ever had any doubts about the
result if we fought with intelligence and
with resolution. The fundamental facts
are in our favor. We have command of
the seas. We have got it now more com-
pletely than we ever had The resources
for the raw materials of arms in men
and equipment are ours.

But I want to say one thing: Time is
not an ally. It is a doubtful neutral at
the present moment, and has not yet
settled on our side. But time can be
won over by effort, by preparation, by
determination, by organization.

We must reckon fearlessly the forces
of the enemy. We must impartially, in-
telligently reckon our own. There is no
greater stupidity in a war than to under-
estimate the forces with which you have
to contend. Calculate them to the last
man, add them up to the last man, add
them up to the last shilling, see what
you have to face, and then face it. Then
I have no doubt of victory.

We must have unity among the Allies,
design and co-ordination. Unity we un-
doubtedly possess. No alliance that ever
existed has worked in more perfect uni-
son and harmony than the present one.
Design and co-ordination leave yet a good
deal to be desired; strategy must come
before geography.

The Central Powers are pooling their
forces, all their intelligence, all their
brains, all their efforts. We have the
means ; they, too, often have the methods.
Let us apply their methods to our means
and we win. Then we shall come to the
reckoning for the long, dreary, cruel tale

CABINET MINISTERS ON PEACE TERMS

733 r

of wrong — the outrages on Belgium, the
atrocities in Poland, the barbarities of
Wittenberg, the inhumanities of the Lusi-
tania. The long account must be settled
to the last farthing.

I have no fear of the people. Britain
will fight it out. We are a sluggish peo-
ple, but no one ever made the mistake,
without suffering for it, that we were
faint-hearted, for I believe in the old
motto, " Trust the people." Tell them
what is happening — there is nothing to
conceal. Have all the facts before them.
They are courageous people, but they
never put forward their best effort in
this land until they face the alternative
of disaster. Tell them what they are con-
fronted with, and they will rise to every
occasion.

Look at the way they are doing it. The
people are capable of rising to greater
heights than even their truest leaders
ever believed. Look at the way, the
cheerful way — it is the amazement of
every man who has been at the front —
they are enduring hardships, wounds,
facing danger and death on the battle-
field ; look at the calm, quiet courage
with which the men and women at home
are enduring grief. You can trust the
people.

I read a story the other day — I am
glad after a very tiring day to take up
a little tale of adventure as a counter-
irritant to the excitements of the House
— I read a tale the other day about a
mining camp at the foot of a mountain
in the great West. The diggers had been
toiling long and hard, with but scant
encouragement for their labors, and one
night a terrible storm swept over the
mountain. An earthquake shattered its
hard surface, and hurled its rocks about,
and in the morning in the rents and fis-
sures they found a rich deposit of gold.

This is a great storm that is sweeping
over the favored lands of Europe, but in
this night of terror you will find selfish-
ness, the hard crust of selfishness and
greed, has been shattered, and in the rent
hearts of the people you will find
treasures, golden treasures of courage,

steadfastness, endurance, devotion, and
of the faith that endureth forever.

THE ONLY LASTING PEACE

In a letter to Robert Donald, dated
June 8, Mr. Lloyd George wrote :

No nation has reached the heights of
the moral grandeur of France during the
war. I set her as England's constant
model. Soldiers and Generals show qual-
ities of endurance, courage, and military
skill worthy of the highest deeds of Na-
poleon's army.

We are now too close properly to judge
the immortal pages written by France
in the book of history, but historians of
the future will write of the splendid
deeds of her sons in letters of gold.

At the name of Verdun I bow before
such proofs of superhuman courage. The
French Army met a shock, backed by
the most barbarous methods, such as no
army ever had to meet. It will be one
of the decisive battles of the war because
it represents the enemy's supreme mil-
itary effort.

Its lesson for the Allies is that heavy
artillery and the most violent explosives
will play the preponderating role in the
battles to come. We will profit thereby,
for it comes at a moment when the fab-
rication of munitions increases prodig-
iously and the allied strength daily aug-
ments.

I have never despaired of victory. The
task will be hard, but the end is sure.
It is Germany's military force that we
must beat. It is not enough to force
her to submission by economic pressure.
A peace imposed on Germany exhausted
in food and materials only would not be
durable. It would be a moral defeat for
the Allies. The Germans could say they
had beaten us in battle and made peace
only because we had starved their women
and children. That peace we don't want.
Only a crushing military victory will
bring the peace for which the Allies are
fighting, and of which Germany will
understand the meaning. That victory
we shall have; it will be complete and
final.

Peace Through Victory Alone

By Aristide Briand

, Premier of France
[An address to members of the Russian Duma during their recent visit to Paris]

TTICTORY is in the heroism of our
y soldiers. It is in them, provided
we give them all the means need-
ed by them to conquer. It is for that
that we have to use all our energies and
will. And if we receive you with so
much fraternal eagerness, it is because
we know what resolution and tenacity
have been shown in your country by the
two assemblies of which you are the
delegates. You will find here the same
desire of Parliament and Government to
attain the same end. * * *

This morning I brought before you
the beauty of our cause, and I added
that what gives us our strength in this
war is that we have not wished it. We
hold our heads up; our conscience is
clear. There is no stain on our alliance.
Nevertheless we have always exerted
ourselves to settle all rivalries amicably
and peacefully. Remember all the provo-
cations which have come to pass in the
world during the last twenty-five years.
Not one has come from us. To these
provocations we have replied with the
persevering pursuit of peaceful solu-
tions.

It is not because there was fear in us.
Our nations are too fine, too noble, too
strong not to be above such suspicions.
We took care to save the world from the
horrors of a war of which we foresaw
the extent and the ravages. Yet we
French had a very painful wound in the
side. If we have shown so much pa-
tience, it is because we expected the nec-
essary reparation only through right.
But a people drunk with pride and fasci-
nated by the desire of achieving the dom-
ination of the world has unexpectedly
thrown itself on us and unchained war
at the very moment when we were en-
deavoring to find an amicable solution.
Now we are fighting. We mean to win.
We will win.

Germany, using in turn force when

she believes herself strongest and craft
when she feels herself growing feebler, is
today resorting to craft. She is spread-
ing abroad the illusive word " peace."
Where does this word come from? To
whom has it been spoken? And on what
conditions? And to what end? By her
ambiguous manoeuvres Germany reckons
on dividing the allied countries. No one
among us will fall into such a sorry
trap. I have said, and I repeat, that
when blood flows in streams, when our
troops with so much self-sacrifice are
giving up their lives, the word " peace "
is a sacrilege if it means that the ag-
gressor will not be punished and if to-
morrow Europe runs the risk of again
being delivered up to the despotism,
fantasy, and caprice of a military caste
athirst for pride and domination. It
would be the dishonor of the Allies!
What should our reply be if tomorrow,
after having concluded such a peace, our
countries were dragged anew into the
frenzy of armaments? What would fut-
ure generations say if we committed such
an act of folly and if we missed the op-
portunity which is offered us of estab-
lishing on solid foundations a lasting;
peace ?

Peace will come out of the victory of
the Allies; it can come only out of our
victory. Peace must not be an empty
formula; it must be based upon interna-
tional law, guaranteed by sanctions,
against which no country will be able to
take its stand. That peace will shine on
humanity and bring security to the peo-
ples who will be able to work and evolve
according to their genius. Blood will no
longer be upon them.

It is this ideal which gives our task
its greatness. It is in the name of this
ideal that our soldiers are fighting and
exposing themselves so light-heartedly
to death; it is in the name of this ideal
that mothers, wives, daughters, and sis-

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES

Former Justice of the Supreme Court, Nominated for President at the Re-
publican Convention, Chicago, June 10. (The Portrait of President Wilson,
the Democratic Nominee, Has Already Appeared in These Pages)
(Photo © Underwood d Underwood.)

GENERAL LI VI AN HUNG

'i he New President of China, Who, as Vice President, Succeeded to the
Office Upon the Death of Yuan Shih-kai, June 6
(Photo © Underwood d Underwood.)

CABINET MINISTERS ON PEACE TERMS

735

ters in mourning are keeping back their
tears, knowing that the sacrifice of a
son, husband, father, or brother will not
have been useless to their native land
and to humanity. That is the only peace
for which we must strive. It is by that
peace that our countries will grow nobler
and finer. We shall obtain the victory
of our arms, which will assure us this
peace, by united action and by a cease-
lessly active and increasingly intimate
fraternization. We owe this victory to
humanity — and it is coming.

Although she has ravaged Belgium and
Serbia, although she still occupies sev-
eral of our departements, although she

has penetrated into Russian territory,
Germany today is not triumphant. More
and more she appears sinking in the
world. Germany is living in anguish,
anxiety, and remorse. This is the power
of the ideal which is at work. This is
the beginning of the end. This is the
certainty that the hour of our victory
will soon be striking. We are today one
vast country, fighting for the same
cause — the Allies using in common their
blood, their men, and their resources.

And now, gentlemen, let us turn our
hearts and minds toward those who are
fighting out there, and on whom glory
is already shining brightly.

An Empire Day Message

By Rudyard Kipling

On May 24, known as Empire Day
throughout the British dominions, Mr.
Kipling published the following:

WHEN Germany challenged us near-
ly two years ago to uphold with
our lives the ideals. by which we
professed to live, we accepted the chal-
lenge, not out of madness, nor for glory
or for gain, but to make good those pro-
fessions. Since then the Allies and our
empire have fought that they may be
free and all earth may be free from the
intolerable domination of German ideals.
We did not foresee the size of the task
when it opened. We do not flinch from
it now that the long months have
schooled us to full knowledge and have
tempered us nationally and individually

to meet it. The nations within the em-
pire have created, maintained, and rein-
forced from their best the great armies
they devote without question to this issue.
They have emerged, one by one, as pow-
ers clothed with power through discipline
and sacrifice, strong for good by their
bitter knowledge of the evil they are
meeting, and wise in the unpurchasable
wisdom of actual achievement. Know-
ing as nations what it is we fight for,
realizing as men and women the resolve
that has been added to us by what each
has endured, we go forward now under
the proud banner of our griefs and losses
to greater effort, greater endurance, and,
if need be, heavier sacrifice, equal spon-
F. ors for the deliverance of mankind.

America's Creed of War and Peace

By Woodrow Wilson

President of the United States

This important address, which has elicited mixed comments from all the belligerent
powers of Europe, was delivered in Washington on May 27 at a banquet of the League to
Enforce Peace, an influential pacifist organization of whch ex-President Taft is the head and
leader. The utterance is a tentative intimation that the United States is willing to serve
the present belligerents in the matter of peace negotiations if and when they so desire. Inci-
dentally Mr. Wilson gave his indorsement to the fundamental principle of the League to
Enforce Peace.

THIS great war that broke so
suddenly upon the world two
years ago, and which has swept
within its flame so great a part
of the civilized world, has affected us
very profoundly, and we are not only at
liberty, it is perhaps our duty, to speak
very frankly of it and of the great in-
terests of civilization which it af-
fects.

With its causes and its objects we
are not concerned. The obscure foun-
tains from which its stupendous flood
has burst forth we are not interested
to search for or explore. But so
great a flood, spread far and wide to
every quarter of the globe, has of ne-
cessity engulfed many a fair province
of right that lies very near to us. Our
own rights as a nation, the liberties, the
privileges, and the property of our peo-
ple have been profoundly affected.

We are not mere disconnected lookers-
on. The longer the war lasts the more
deeply do we become concerned that it
should be brought to an end and the
world be permitted to resume its normal
life and course again. And when it does
come to an end we shall be as much
concerned as the nations at war to see
peace assume an aspect of permanence,
give promise of days from which the
anxiety of uncertainty shall be lifted,
bring some assurance that peace and war
shall always hereafter be reckoned part
of the common interest of mankind.

We are participants, whether we would
or not, in the life of the world. The in-
terests of all nations are our own also.
We are partners with the rest. What
affects mankind is inevitably our affair

as well as the affair of the nations of
Europe and of Asia.

One observation on the causes of the
present war we are at liberty to make,
and to make it may throw some light
forward upon the future as well as back-
ward upon the past. It is plain that this
war could have come only as it did, sud-
denly and out of secret counsels, with-
out warning to the world, without dis-
cussion, without any of the deliberate
movements of counsel with which it
would seem natural to approach so stu-
pendous a contest. It is probable that
if it had been foreseen just what would
happen, just what alliances would be
formed, just what forces arrayed against
one another, those who brought the great
contest on would have been glad to sub-
stitute conference for force.

If we ourselves had been afforded
some opportunity to apprise the bel-
ligerents of the attitude which it would
be our duty to take, of the policies and
practices against which we would feel
bound to use all our moral and economic
strength, and in certain circumstances
even our physical strength also, our own
contribution to the counsel which might
have averted the struggle would have
been considered worth weighing and
regarding.

And the lesson which the shock of
being taken by surprise in a matter so
deeply vital to all the nations of the
world has made poignantly clear is that
the peace of the world must henceforth
depend upon a new a'nd more wholesome
diplomacy. Only when the great nations
of the world have reached some sort of
agreement as to what they hold to be

AMERICA'S CREED OF WAR AND PEACE

737

fundamental to their common interest,
and as to some feasible method of acting
in concert when any nation or group of
nations seeks to disturb those funda-
mental things, can we feel that civiliza-
tion is at last in a way of justifying its
existence and claiming to be finally
established. It is clear that nations must
in the future be governed by the same
high code of honor that we demand of
individuals. * * *

If this war has accomplished nothing
else for the benefit of the world, it has
at least disclosed a great moral neces-
sity and set forward the thinking of the
statesmen of the world by a whole age.
Repeated utterances of the leading
statesmen of most of the great nations
now engaged in war have made it plain
that their thought has come to this:
That the principle of public right must
henceforth take precedence over the in-
dividual interests of particular nations
and that the nations of the world must
in some way band themselves together to
see that that right prevails as against
any sort of selfish aggression; that
henceforth alliance must not be set up
against alliance, understanding against
understanding, but that there must be
a common agreement for a common ob-
ject, and that at the heart of that com-
mon object must lie the inviolable rights
of peoples and of mankind.

The nations of the world have become
each other's neighbors. It is to their
interest that they should understand each
other. In order that they may under *
stand each other it is imperative that
they should agree to co-operate in a
common cause and that they should, so
act that the guiding principle of that
common cause shall be even-handed and
impartial justice.

This is undoubtedly the thought of
America. This is what we ourselves will
say when there comes proper occasion to
say it. In the dealings of nations with
one another arbitrary force must be re-
jected and we must move forward to the
thought of the modern world, the thought
of which peace is the very atmosphere.
That thought constitutes a chief part
of the passionate conviction of America.

We believe these fundamental things:

First, that every people has a right to
choose the sovereignty under which it
shall live. Like other nations, we have
ourselves no doubt once and again of-
fended against that principle when for a
little while controlled by selfish passion,
as our franker historians have been hon-
orable enough to admit; but it has be-
come more and more our rule of life and
action.

Second, that the small States of the
world have a right to enjoy the same
respect for their sovereignty and for
their territorial integrity that great and
powerful nations expect and insist upon.

And, third, that the world has a right
to be free from every disturbance of its
peace that has its origin in aggression
and disregard of the rights of peoples
and nations.

So sincerely do we believe in these
things that I am sure that I speak the
mind and wish of the people of America
when I say that the United States is will-
ing to become a partner in any feasible
association of nations formed in order to
realize these objects and make them se-
cure against violation.

There is nothing that the United States
wants for itself that any other nation
has. We are willing, on the contrary,
to limit ourselves along with them to a
prescribed course of duty and respect for
the rights of others, which will check any
selfish passion of our own, as it will
check any aggressive impulse of theirs.

If it should ever be our privilege to
suggest or initiate a movement for peace
among the nations now at war, I am sure
that the people of the United States
would wish their Government to move
along these lines:

First — Such a settlement with regard
to their own immediate interests as the
belligerents may agree upon. We have
nothing material of any kind to ask for
ourselves, and are quite aware that we
are in no sense or degree parties to the
present quarrel. Our interest is only in
peace and its future guarantees.

Second — A universal association of the
nations to maintain the inviolate security
of the highway of the seas for the com-
mon and unhindered use of all the na-
tions of the world, and to prevent any

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

war begun either contrary to treaty
covenants or without warning, and full
submission of the causes to the opinion
of the world — a virtual guarantee of ter-
ritorial integrity and political indepen-
dence.

But I did not come here to discuss a
program. I came only to avow a creed
and give expression to the confidence I
feel that the world is even now upon the
eve of a great consummation, when some
common force will be brought into ex-

istence which shall safeguard right as the
first and most fundamental interest of all
peoples and all Governments, when co-
ercion shall be summoned not to the
service of political ambition or selfish
hostility, but to the service of a common
order, a common justice, and a common
peace.

God grant that the dawn of that day
of frank dealing and of settled peace,
concord, and co-operation may be near
at hand!

Wilson's Mediation Not Acceptable

By Lord Cromer

Former British Ruler of Egypt

In a letter to The London Times Lord
Cromer expressed himself thus frankly
on the subject of American peace media-
tion :

BOTH the politicians and the press of
this country so far exercise very
praiseworthy restraint in discuss-
ing the attitude adopted during the pres-
ent war by the Government of the United
States.

It would, however, appear advisable
that President Wilson and those asso-
ciated with him should be left under no
doubt as to the views on the subject of
his most recent utterance held by many
who, as in my own case, have throughout
their lives persistently entertained and
still entertain most friendly feelings to-
ward America and Americans.

I can, of course, only state my per-
sonal opinions, but I believe that those
opinions are shared by many of my
countrymen. In the first place, President
Wilson cannot too clearly understand
that, desirous as the people of this coun-
try are to bring this terrible war to a
close and willing as they would eventu-
ally be to listen to any rational and prac-
tical proposals having for their object
the diminution of the risk of future wars,
they would altogether reject the idea of
concluding peace save on terms wholly
acceptable to themselves and their al-
lies.

We know nothing very definite as to
the terms which Germany is prepared to
propose or to accept, but from the feelers
put forward by the inspired German
press we can come to no other conclusion
than that they are not worthy of a mo-
ment's consideration or discussion.

In the second place, it is well that Pres-
ident Wilson should fully realize the fact
that the meaningless and misleading
phrase, invented in Berlin, about the
freedom of the seas is generally regarded
in this country as a mere euphemism for
the destruction of that naval supremacy
on the part of Great Britain which has in
the past been of such infinite benefit, not
only to Englishmen, but to the rest of
the civilized world.

Without in any way wishing to dispar-
age the valuable assistance rendered by
the gallant land forces of the empire, it
seems certain that if as will, I feel
assured, be the case we emerge victori-
ously from the present contest, the vic-
tory will be mainly due to the British
Navy.

It is inconceivable that any responsible
British Government would be disposed to
listen or that the nation would be pre-
pared to accept any proposals having for
their object the diminution of the relative
naval strength of this country.

A third point is deserving of notice.
We may all recognize President Wilson's

WILSON'S MEDIATION NOT ACCEPTABLE

739

good intentions and his lofty aims, we
may assume he is impartial, but it is
more than doubtful in spite of the very
friendly feelings entertained toward
America and Americans generally that
the people of this country would under
any circumstances welcome the idea that
President Wilson should assume the role
of mediator.

As note has succeeded note and speech
followed speech, the conviction has been
steadily gaining ground that President
Wilson has wholly failed to grasp the
view entertained by the vast majority of
Englishmen on the cause for which we

and our allies are fighting. This opinion
will certainly be confirmed by the amaz-
ing statement that America is not con-
cerned with the causes and objects of the
war.

Confidence in President Wilson's
statesmanship has been rudely shaken.
Neither for the moment does it appear
likely to be restored to the extent of ac-
quiescence in the proposal that he should
be in any way vested with the power of
exercising any decisive influence on the
terms of peace, upon which the future
destinies of this country and of the civ-
ilized world will greatly depend.

Our Foreign Policy in This War

By Robert J. Lansing

United States Secretary of State
[Address delivered on June 3 before a Bar Association at Watertown, N. Y.]

THE great war has caused so many
conditions which are entirely new
and presented so many questions
which were never before raised or even
thought of that it has been no easy task
to meet and answer them. The relations
between neutrals and belligerents were
never more difficult of adjustment. It
was never harder to preserve neutral
rights from invasion by the desperate
opponents in the titanic conflict in which
the power, if not the life, of the great
empires of the earth is at stake.

The peoples and Governments at war
are blinded by passion; their opinions
are unavoidably biased; their conduct
frequently influenced by hysterical im-
pulses which approach to madness. Pa-
tience and forbearance are essential to a
neutral in dealing with such nations.
Acts, which, under normal conditions,
would be most offensive, must be consid-
ered calmly and without temper.

In a nutshell, the situation of our rela-
tions with Great Britain and Germany,
the two powers with which we have had
our principal controversies, is this:

Germany, having developed the subma-
rine as an offensive engine of destruction,
asserts that she cannot, on account of

the resulting conditions, conform to the
established rules of naval warfare, and
we should not, therefore, insist on strict
compliance. Great Britain has no sym-
pathy with the German point of view, and
demands that the submarines observe the
rules of visit and search without excep-
tion.

On the other hand, Great Britain de-
clares that, on account of the new condi-
tions resulting from submarine activity
and the use of mines and from the geo-
graphical position of Germany, she can-
not conform to the established rules of
blockade and contraband, and we should
not therefore hold her to strict compli-
ance with those rules. Germany insists,
nevertheless, that Great Britain be made
to follow the existing law.

Both Governments have adopted the
same arguments, based primarily on mili-
tary necessity, and offer the same excuses
for their illegal acts, but neither will
admit that the other is in any way justi-
fied for its conduct. Now, what is the
United States to 'do in these circum-
stances ?

The only alternative is for this Gov-
ernment to hold firmly to those neutral
rights which international law has clearly

740 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

defined and to insist vigorously on their
observance by all belligerents.

This has been the position of the
United States from the beginning of the
war. It has twice sought to obtain
mutual consent from the belligerents to
certain changes in the rules, but in both
cases it failed and the suggestions were
withdrawn.

A Government which places life and
property on an equality would be gen-
erally condemned and justly condemned.
This seems to be axiomatic, and yet, I
regret to say, there are some Americans
who do not recognize this difference.
How many take this view it is impossible
to say, but the number is large, judging
by the letters and telegrams received in
Washington. Indeed, it is held by some
who sit in the halls of Congress. These
people openly complain that the Govern-
ment does not exert as much pressure to
protect American property as it does to
protect American lives — property which
can be restored to the owners or an in-
demnity paid; lives which can never be
restored or adequately indemnified.

This mental attitude makes one won-
der if the sensibilities of the American
people have become so blunted by ma-
terialism that they think as much of the
loss of their property as they do of the
loss of the lives of their fellow-country-
men.

Such an idea is repugnant to a lib-
erty-loving American; it is utterly want-
ing in the nobler impulses of a great
people; it is hostile to the spirit of true
Americanism. Yet it exists and is wide-
spread, and must be reckoned with. The
great heart of the Republic is threatened
with fatty degeneracy through those who
have lost their patriotic vigor; many
Americans have become lovers of ease
rather than lovers of national honor.

When you disapprove of some course

of action taken by this Government be
lenient in your judgment, for often the
action is the result of conditions which
cannot be made public and which may
never be made public. It is always my
wish, and I know that it is the wish of
the President, to take the people into
our confidence, to tell them frankly what
the situation is; but you must realize
that it cannot be done in every case.
They must try to be patient and to trust
the Government to do the very best it can
in upholding the national honor and dig-
nity.

Let me add just a word: When the
foreign policies of the Government are
criticised by honest critics — I mean by
" honest " critics those who are not influ-
enced solely by political considerations
or personal ambitions — I often wonder
what the critics would do if they had the
responsibility.

Would they be so bellicose? Would
they make demands when it was ques-
tionable whether they would compel com-
pliance ? Would they count the full cost
of their action ? I wonder whether they
would be radical or conservative. Re-
sponsibility makes a world of difference
in a man's point of view. When a few
words may plunge this country into war
the man who has the power to utter those
words will think a long, long time before
he exercises that power. He will submit
to a deal of criticism and endure abuse
and ridicule rather than see the young
men of America sent forth to die on the
battlefield.

Only the supreme necessity of main-
taining the honor of the United States
or of defending its independence and the
liberties of its people will induce him to
speak the fateful words which may bring
death to thousands of his fellow-country-
men and change the destinies of the Re-
public.

When the Chancellor Speaks"

WRITTEN FOR CURRENT HISTORY

By Gilbert Hirsch

THE German Imperial Chancellor
has addressed the representatives
of the German people on the state
of the nation six times since the
outbreak of the war.

" When the Chancellor speaks, it is al-
ways a great day for us," says a Berlin
newspaper. " But, to remain a great
day in history, it must bring us nearer
to peace."

Far from peaceful appears that other
Chancellor, who stands, twice life-size,
on the steps of the Reichstag, like its
guardian spirit. His brow is wrinkled
under his helmet, and his fist is clenched
as he looks across the Koenigsplatz to-
ward the white marble figure of von
Moltke, who drove back the French in
his own day ; toward the " Iron Hinden-
burg," who has driven back the Russians
in ours.

Two common soldiers in mud-gray uni-
forms stand in front of Bismarck and
stare up into his face. Their knapsacks
are full and more than full; for they go
to the front today.

After a moment they pass on as if
satisfied. Have they been able to read
in those set features the secret of why
they are going to die?

A taxi-auto rolls up to the side of the
big gray building and its occupant dis-
appears through the door. He is fol-
lowed by two men who have come on foot.
The blare of a military auto horn an-
nounces a low, open automobile, slender
and dark gray, like a submarine, that
shoots around the corner. An officer of
high rank steps out; he, too, is swal-
lowed up by the big building.

The two soldiers have stopped again to
watch.

" What is it that's going on today? "
one of them asks of the policeman on
duty.

" The Imperial Chancellor speaks on
peace." Then, in the tone of a superior
officer giving an order, he tells them

not to block up the doorway. Meekly
they cross the street, and watch the
stream of Reichstag members with a
look of increasing wonder.

You can tell from the look of them
that they have learned what war is;
have been at the front before; have per-
haps seen buildings larger than this one
cracked like eggshells by a single shot
from a mortar. Can anything that is
said inside this box of a building, with
its gilt dome, really put a stop to the
colossal struggle that rages clear across
Europe, from Arras to Bagdad? Do
these self-important little " Reichstag-
sabgeordneten," with their hfgh hats
and their black leather portfolios full of
papers, think that they can stop it —
with words?

The two men in mud-gray lose in-
terest; their faces again become impas-
sive; they turn and trudge across the
asphalt as doggedly as if it were the
end of a day's march across the plains
of Poland.

On the opposite side of the building
a long line of porters and messenger
boys has been Awaiting since 7 o'clock
for the few tickets that are left.
For all Germany wants to hear tho
Chancellor, convinced that he can give
the answer to that question which touches
them most deeply. It is no longer,
"Which will win — England or Ger-
many? " but, " Which will win— War or
Peace? "

As yet the forces of peace have won
not a single victory in any country. Last
fall the Italian Socialists were expected
to form a powerful battalion against war.
Yet Italy has joined France and Russia
in signing that agreement not to make a
separate peace — " done in quintuplicate
at London " — which puts the peace of
Europe, as far as the Allies are con-
cerned, into the hands of England.

Of "the English cabinet? Or of the
English people? Snowden, the Socialist,

742 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

puts that question to the English Premier
in the House of Commons; " demands " a
reply favorable to democracy and to
peace. If the German Imperial Chan-
cellor gets up in the Reichstag and an-
nounces peace terms — peace terms that
seem "reasonable" to the common peo-
ple of England— what then? May they be
rejected, in secret meetings behind locked
doors, by Ministers and diplomats who
have staked their whole careers on a
smashing victory?

No, declares the Socialist, and demands
that " no proposal for peace negotiations
based upon an evacuation of conquered
territory be rejected without the knowl-
edge of Parliament."

The Premier listens gravely. Refuses
the demand so suavely that one hardly
knows that it is refused. Peace propos-
als made to the British Government must
first of all be laid before the allied Gov-
ernments.

The British Government, however,
should regard it as " desirable " that
Parliament be taken into its confidence
" as early as possible."

Little hope of peace in that quarter.
As to France, that same militant temper
that made Briand only a few years ago
the most revolutionary of Socialists now
makes him proof against socialist de-
mands for peace. From Russia rumors
of desire for a separate peace have been
recurrent since the third month of war;
yet the temper today is more warlike
than ever.

And Germany's allies? Bulgaria is
flushed with victory in the Balkans.
" The Sick Man of Europe " still insists
that his recuperation is permanent, and
is ready to prove it. Austria will stand
by Germany, and Hungary shows no sign
of drawing away. Count Tisza, whose
words are listened to more respectfully
than those of any other statesman in the
whole Dual Empire; Count Tisza, whose
single personality is shifting the political
centre of gravity from Vienna to Buda-
pest; Count Tisza has replied as follows
to those in the Hungarian Parliament
who clamor for peace:

" When shall peace return? That rests
entirely with our enemies. But the
greater the sacrifices that this war de-

mands, the harder will be the conditions
of peace for our enemies."

And the neutral nations? In the Par-
liament that sits under the shadow of
the empty Peace Palace at The Hague
there has been talk of interceding. But
now the conflagration is spreading, and
Holland herself is in danger of being in-
volved. Switzerland is a breeding place
of peace rumors. But the war itself has
made clear the impotence of small States,
in diplomacy as well as in war.

The United States? Officially she has
as yet made no move to intervene; and
the one unofficial attempt turns out a
fiasco. The " Peace Dreadnought "
runs into an Atlantic storm; and then
into worse storms. England sneers at
it. Germany distrusts it. America is
sneakingly ashamed of it.

Little prospect, then, of peace from
without.

" But why cannot we take the first
step? We have won. Everywhere our
armies stand deep in the enemies' coun-
try. In 1871 we dictated the terms of
peace from Paris. Why cannot we today
dictate terms of peace from Brussels or
Belgrade ? If our terms are generous
enough, surely they will be accepted. Did
not Bismarck himself, after delivering
Austria a crushing blow, make an early
and magnanimous peace, leaving her ter-
ritory intact ? Did not that magnanimity
— since it allayed the antagonisms of cen-
turies— prove a great blessing to Prus-
sia ? Why, then, shall Germany not deal
in the same spirit with her enemies of
today?"

Such are the questions which those men
are asking themselves who, long before
the hour set, fill up the extreme left of
the Reichstag floor. These ninety mem-
bers of the Social-Democracy are not
proletarians. By conviction — yes. By
birth — perhaps. In spirit? — Never. Most
of them have the look of the bourgeois,
of what the Germans call the " Philis-
ter "; are men with a certain small posi-
tion in the world, of which they are
proud; with a bank account, of which
they are certainly not ashamed. They
are militant politically; but socially re-
spectable.

Here and there among them is an un-

"WHEN THE CHANCELLOR SPEAKS

743

mistakable laborer type. And you catch
rare glimpses of fanatic intensity, inheri-
tance from an earlier generation of
Socialists. But here appearances are de-
ceiving. Rebellion has its conventions,
just as obedience has; conventions that
express themselves not merely in the cut
of a man's clothes, but of his beard and
of his features. That powerfully built
man, for example, with the forked red
beard and the angry features, who looks
more anarchist than socialist, will, when
he gets up to speak, roar as gently as any
sucking dove.

There is a sparse sprinkling of uni-
forms among them. And one of their
leaders wears the epaulets and sword of
an officer. There is nothing in those
regular features, red cheeks, snow-white
hair and mustache to make his uniform
seem an incongruity. You can see from
his bearing that Albert Sudekum, Doctor
of Philosophy, author, and member of
the party of the Social Revolution, is as
proud of his share of the battle of Lorette
Heights last Spring as of those scores of
battles between capital and labor, be-
tween socialism and the Government,
which used to be his one reason for
living.

Not far from him .sit the Liberals —
National Liberals and the Progressive
People's Party. And to their right, di-
rectly in front of the Speaker's stand, sit
the Catholics. Here the officers grow
more plentiful. And the benches of the
Imperial Party and of the Conservatives
at the extreme right look like a council
of war — Lieutenants, Captains, Majors,
in gray campaign uniforms, one behind
the other.

An old-fashioned town crier's bell calls
the meeting to order. And the man who
swings it looks like the town crier him-
self. A weazened, little old man, bald,
spectacled, white-bearded, President
Kaempf is as fantastic as a figure from
a child's story book. The more so by
contrast to the men who cluster about
him and behind him, in the doorways and
in the two rows of benches to either side
of him on the raised " tribune " — Princes
and Excellencies, Generals and Admirals,
Ministers of the German Empire and
envoys from the individual States that

compose it — two hundred leaders of the
German State, facing the four hundred
representatives of the German people
there in the hall below them.

Is there danger of a chasm opening
up between the tribune and the hall, in
which all German hopes of victory shall
be swallowed up? Is there a possibility
that the representatives of the people
will refuse to support the rulers of the
State in carrying on the war any longer?
Or, on the other hand, can it be true that
the rulers are tired of war, but dare not
admit it, and have secretly prompted the
representatives to ask them to make
peace?

Each of these possibilities has, at one
time or another, been predicted by Ger-
many's enemies; who, through the eyes
of some of the " neutrals " in the gal-
leries, are watching eagerly what is about
to take place.

If the eyes of the whole hostile world
were upon them those 200 on the tribune
could not bear themselves more defiantly.
The officers stand as if on a battlefield
with the shells crashing about them.
Some of them wear the blue parade uni-
form of peace, others field gray, with the
crimson* stripe of the General Staff.

Next to a former Military Attache at
Washington stands a young naval officer,
short and supple, with dark, highbred
features of a Spanish type. The short
knife he wears at his belt looks, in its
gilt sheath, like a toy. But appearances
are deceptive — particularly at sea. Did
not a certain lamented King of England
once speak of the whole German Navy
as — a toy?

Those who crowd the balconies to
the doors have come here to see, not
uniforms, but men. They point out
statesmen and diplomats by name. Over
there is the Minister of Railways. That
bald man with the white mustache is
Delbriick of the Interior. Over there is
Jagow, head of the Foreign Office,
suave, subtle. Now he bends his head
politely to listen to something whispered
to him by that man at his right who
holds the attention by the unmistakable,
cold magnetism of the great practical
statesman. He looks strangely like
Elihu Root — a Prussian Elihu Root. Is

744 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

it imagination — or does everything about
him — his figure, the lines of his coat,
the cut of his hair, suggest the black
eagle of Prussia?

He is Karl Helfferich, Minister of the
Treasury and the strongest man in the
German Government. Von Havenstein,
head of the Imperial Bank, may be the
greater financial engineer; Helfferich is
the greater financial soldier and financial
diplomat. He it is who raised the sec-
ond great war loan in the Spring of
1915, the third still greater one the next
Fall — " the greatest financial feat in
history," he himself called it — and who
has again procured ten " milliards " from
the pockets of Germany's citizens. If,
in the speech the Chancellor makes to-
day, we hear one word of weakness, we
may know that it is because this " Hin-
denburg of finance " confesses defeat.
But he stands there cool, quietly confi-
dent, with the look of a General in the
middle of a successful campaign.

His figure dominates the tribune. It
is upon him that the American Ambas-
sador, sitting in the first row of the
Royal Balcony, directly in front of a
Chinese attache and a Venezuelan charge
d'affaires, first fixes his black opera
glasses. Then he focuses them upon the
head of Germany's Foreign Office; study-
ing that polite enigmatical face as an
astronomer studies a distant star; as if
trying to read the soul of the man who
will be his antagonist in the next " re-
grettable misunderstanding " to arise be-
tween the two countries.

Von Tirpitz next claims the Ambas-
sador's attention. Bald, with forked
white beard, pale with the pallor of fishes
at the bottom of the sea — the old sea-
fighter looks like Father Neptune him-
self. If he has been shorn of his power
in the bitter fight over those deadly deep-
sea fishes of which he was so proud, he
does not show it. He sits alone, motion-
less as a statue, the hand that rests on
the table in front of him white and slen-
der as a woman's.

A stir at the doorway. The Chancellor
stalks in and takes the seat to the
President's right. He wears the gray
field uniform of a Major General, and
carries his tall, slim figure with conscious

military stiffness; yet cannot quite over-
come that slight stoop of the shoulders
which proclaims the scholar, close to
sixty. The suns of many battlefields
have bronzed his long, thin face, but his
features are refined, sensitive, and sad.
His friends say that to him this war is a
godsend, since it has pulled him, by main
force, out of deep despondency. His wife
died just before the war broke out. She
was said to be one of the most remark-
able women in Germany.

When the house is quite still he rises
to speak.

" Gentlemen : I take this first oppor-
tunity to give you a brief survey of the
situation. Shortly after the Reichstag
last adjourned " —

His voice is low, his manner matter of
fact, his delivery a little halting. He
even seems, in spite of his long public
career as a Prussian official, slightly em-
barrassed by the knowledge that he is
addressing all Germany and the world.
But when he describes Germany's recent
military successes the scholar expands
and fills out the Major General's uniform.
And his voice becomes almost vibrant as
he speaks hopefully of the period that
shall follow this war, when that " firm
bridge " which has been built by Ger-
man arms between Germany and the
Near East " shall no longer echo to the
tramp of marching battalions but shall
serve the works of peace, of culture " —

" —Of the German capitalists ! "

The interruption comes from the back
of the hall — from the left — the very
left. No need to ask to whom that high,
shrill voice belongs. Those in the bal-
cony crane their necks; but, for the most
part cannot see as the voice comes from
directly below them.

In the hall itself, murmurs, laughter.
Some one shouts: " Put him out! "

The Chancellor flushes, waits. The
hall quiets down.

The Chancellor begins again as if
nothing has happened. For a time he
turns a little toward the right of the
hall as if looking in that direction for
support. Then he turns squarely toward
the Social Democrats, and points out to
them how all the predictions made by
their late leader, Bebel, about a Ger-

WHEN THE CHANCELLOR SPEAKS "

745

many involved in a great war, are now
refuted by the facts.

His tone becomes hard and challeng-
ing. The whole Social-Democratic theory
of war is being tried in his balance, and
found wanting. And none of those in
the left of the hall seem inclined to lift
a finger in its defense.

" He predicted universal unemploy-
ment," continues the Chancellor, his
voice mounting; " he predicted universal
hunger " —

" — and the Revolution ! "

That defiant voice from the rear of
the hall is higher, shriller than before;
has a slightly hysterical quaver; rises
almost to a shriek.

A moment of silence, in which his
" comrades " to the right and left turn to
stare, in shocked silence, apparently more
deeply affected by this breach of the
discipline of the party than the other
representatives are by the breach of the
discipline of the Parliament. There are
shouts and laughter from the right of
the hall, smiles and murmurs from the
tribune. Finally the fantastic little fig-
ure in the President's chair rises and,
with the help of that town crier's bell of
his, suppresses the " revolution " and
restores quiet.

Twice at least, during each of the
Chancellor's speeches to the Reichstag,
that one voice is raised in shrill protest.
The first impulse of the neutrals in the
gallery to sympathize with a man who
has chosen to fight singlehanded against
a whole Parliament, against a whole na-
tion, is somewhat checked by the sight of
the man himself. He is short, dark,
slight; wears thick eye-glasses for short-
sightedness; wears the ugly, beltless, ill-
fitting gray uniform of the " Schipper,"
as the trench-digging, road-building
brigade of the regular army is somewhat
contemptuously called. He is over forty
but looks ten years younger, and has
somewhat the manner of a precocious
schoolboy.

There is nothing of the politician about
his appearance; nor yet of the revolu-
tionist— rather of the theorist, whose
theories have built walls between him
and reality, walls quite as thick as those
which kept his father imprisoned during

thirteen of the last thirty years of his
life. Wilhelm Liebknecht was a great
political thinker and organizer. But he
bequeathed £o his son little besides his
theories — and his courage.

These interruptions of Dr. Karl Lieb-
knecht in the Reichstag, sharp and ef-
fective as some of them are, lay him open
to even sharper rejoinders.

" I speak," he cries, " for the common
men, the men out there in the trenches,
at the front — "

" Where you have never been," dryly
adds a man sitting at the right in offi-
cer's uniform — for the " Schippers " are
chosen from among those whom a weak
heart or some other physical defect un-
fits for the first line of battle.

And once, when his diatribe against
the Government becomes particularly
violent, a member of his own party calls
him to order in the tone of a mother re-
proving a naughty child:

" Haven't you learned that a politician
must consider the effect of his words?
You are simply putting weapons in the
hands of the enemy."

And Karl Liebknecht does not inter-
rupt again during that session.

Six times since the outbreak of the
war has the German Imperial Chancellor
addressed the representatives of the
German people on the state of the na-
tion. And each time he speaks, this
question, coming from the heart of the
common people in Germany, and audible
to him alone, becomes more insistent.

" Is the Imperial Chancellor ready to
declare under what conditions he is will-
ing to make peace? "

All his speeches are in response to
this unspoken question. And each suc-
ceeding speech gives a clearer and fuller
response to it. Germany's peace terms
are like a picture thrown on a screen —
at first dim and all but indiscernible,
but slowly, very slowly, brought to focus.
The Chancellor seems to be feeling his
way, from speech to speech, toward those
ultimate demands which, at the Peace
Conference, will have to be clear, hard,
definite, and unchangeable.

In delivering his first war speech,, on
the historic 4th of August, his mind
was too full of the peace that had just

746 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

been broken to have room for the peace
that must later be patched up.

Four months later, Turkey's decision
to fight on Germany's side encourages
him to declare that Germany will not
stop fighting "until we have the cer-
tainty that no one will again dare dis-
turb that peace in which we intend
to develop, as a free people, the being
and the power of Germany."

That word " certainty " gives way to
the much stronger phrase — " all possible
guarantees and pledges," in his speech
of the following Spring, in which he pays
his respects to Austria's new enemy, Italy.

" The more fiercely the storm rages
about us," he adds, " the firmer must we
build our house."

The fall of Warsaw early in August
makes him even more confident that Ger-
many can get what she wants. Visions
of " a new Germany," rise before him;
of a Germany which is not merely to be
" guaranteed " and " pledged " against
actual attack, but which is to " build out
her position " in such a way " that other
powers will never again be seized by the
inclination " even to intrigue against her
diplomatically. There is not only to be a
new Germany, but a whole " new Europe,"
in which a new Poland, " freed from the
Russian yoke," will be led toward " a
happy future in which it can lead its own
peculiar national life."

All this sounds promising, to German
ears. But finally the time comes when
the people of Germany are tired of prom-
ises of peace, and would like to look upon
the face of peace itself.

" Is the Imperial Chancellor ready to
declare under what conditions he is will-
ing to make peace ? "

Again that question from the heart of
the German people, as he enters the
Reichstag hall. But this time, not only
he, but the whole Parliament hears it.
For at last, after sixteen months of bitter
war, the burning question has got itself
uttered aloud. And all Germany, all the
world, awaits an answer.

It is a man of fifty who asks it — bald,
precise, neatly dressed; slightly pedantic,
with the peculiar, obstinate pedantry of
the socialist; yet typically German,
typically middle class.

Originally a printer by trade, Phillip
Scheidemann has for the past twenty
years been a socialist editor, for the
past twelve years member of the Reichs-
tag, for the past four years a recognized
leader of the Social Democratic faction
there, for the past year the man who,
more than any other, has held together
the powerful party that represents the
common people of Germany.

Will he be able to hold it together
longer ? That depends on the answer to
the great question which he, the spokes-
man of the people, is now putting, with
the unconscious dignity of an average
man on whose shoulders rests a responsi-
bility far from average, to von Bethmann
Hollweg, spokesman of the Kaiser.

He speaks of the daily increase of
death, of want, of misery; of how " Eu-
rope is deliberately bringing on its own
ruin through this war, and the United
States of America " — here he " glances
toward the balcony, where Mr. Gerard
can be seen in the front row, listening
eagerly — " the United States of America
is making brilliant profits out of it all."

He tells of how all countries long for
peace, yet none dare admit it.

" Upon you, Mr. Chancellor, rests a
great responsibility. The whole world
will stand with those who make the first
offer of peace. Accursed throughout all
history be they who shove it aside, to
keep up the fighting till Europe bleeds
to death ! "

But the words are drowned out in the
Chancellor's ears by those mocking, hos-
tile voices which seem to penetate to him
even here, predicting a defeated Germany
suing for mercy. Although he asserts,
with great emphasis, his readiness " to
declare at once " under what conditions
he is " willing to enter into peace nego-
tiations " — yet he does not declare it; de-
clares, instead, that any offer of peace
made by him now would be misconstrued
by that enemy which still dares talk of
" throwing Germany back across the
Rhine."

It is only at the very end of his speech
that he throws out a hint, heavily veiled,
of the peace terms which Germany will
demand. The Reichstag hears once more
of " material guarantees," and this time

WHEN THE CHANCELLOR SPEAKS"

747

in a specific connection — Belgium. And
it is allowed to extract what meaning it
can from the important but vague decla-
ration that:

" Neither in the east nor in the west
may our enemies remain in control of
gates of entry, through which they can
again threaten us more seriously than
before."

To judge by their applause, those uni-
formed men to the right of the hall be-
lieve themselves to know exactly what
that declaration means, and approve of it.
Most of them have learned, from the
most intensely personal experience, where
those " gates of entry " lie. Some of
them have helped drive back the enemy
after he has passed through these gates.
Others have helped storm the gates them-
selves— Liege, Kovno, Novo Georgievsk,
and the rest; or have fought desperately,
as yet unsuccessfully to drive the enemy
back from those few square miles of Ger-
man territory that he holds, thanks to
the great gate of Belfort; or have held
the trenches around that still greater
gate of Verdun — not yet dreaming of
storming it — for that attempt still lies
two months in the dim future.

But the Social Democrats are not satis-
fied with the Chancellor's answer. Some
of them do not think that the Chancellor
has made his peace terms clear; others
think he has made them all too clear; as
they prove clearly enough, a week later,
when a score of them break party dis-
cipline in order to vote against the fourth
war loan- appropriation, requested of
them by the shrewd and persuasive
Helfferich, who appears before the
Reichstag in person to demand it.

But when, on April 5 of this year, the
Chancellor once more faces the people's
Deputies, something gives him the cour-
age to speak more plainly. Is it the fail-
ure of the Allies' Dardanelles expedition?
Or is it the German successes around
Verdun? Or the series of thunderbolts
cast down upon England almost nightly
by the German air pilots? Or is it, per-
haps, some secret assurance as to the at-
titude of the factions within Germany
itself?

Some assurance given by Liberal and

Socialist leaders that, if he avoids the
use of that dangerous word " annexa-
tion," he may speak as plainly as he likes
without fear of changing the dissenting
minority into a majority?

Certainly something very definite must
have happened to give him the courage
to talk like a twentieth century Bismarck
about redrawing the map of Europe on a
large scale; the courage bluntly to in-
form the Reichstag that " in many re-
spects the new Europe cannot resemble
the old."

" Can * he really believe," says the
Chancellor, " that Germany will ever, of
her own free will, deliver back into the
hands of reactionary Russia the nations
between the Baltic and the Volhynian
swamps ? "

And as to Belgium: " Here, also, Ger-
many cannot sacrifice the oppressed
Flemish race, but must assure them the
sound evolution which follows the lines
of their national character."

That speech marks not merely a turn-
ing point in the Chancellor's policy of
dealing with the Reichstag; it marks a
turning point in Germany's policy of
dealing with her neighbors. It is a pro-
gram for a third stage in the career of
the German Nation.

In the first stage, Germany was a
thing of fragments and splinters, of prin-
cipalities turned against one another by
the intrigues of neighboring States.

Bismarck brought about the second
stage, in which Germany was united, yet
was much too busy learning to hold itself
together to have the surplus energy to
extend itself through " spheres of in-
fluence " or " peaceful penetrations."

This speech of von Bethmann Hollweg's
announces a third stage, in which Ger-
many will insist on having neighbors
" with whom we can collaborate, and who
will collaborate with us "; in which " Ger-
many and Austria must and will solve
the Polish question "; in which, in short,
Germany shall announce that it has at-
tained its diplomatic majority, just as it
attained some time ago its military and
economic majority, and that now it is
prepared to play a man't part in the af-
fairs of Europe.

The Horrors of Trench Fighting

By Romeo Houle

CURRENT HISTORY received the original manuscript of this remarkable narrative and can
vouch for its authenticity. It is undeniably one of the most thrilling human documents of
real warfare that the great struggle has thus far produced. The editor has investigated the
standing of the author in his home community and obtained official confirmation of his mili-
tary record. Romeo Houle was born in New Bedford, Mass., Oct. 29, 1893, at 36 Hicks Street,
the son of a local barber, Zacharie Houle, and Xeline Begnoche. He has a common school
education. In 1912 he moved to Montreal, where he was a barber. When war was declared
he enlisted in the Sixty-fifth Regiment, First Canadian Division, Aug. 10, 1914. He was dis-
charged Feb. 10, 1910, and arrived in America Feb. 23, on the steamship Tuscania. His father
secured the young soldier's discharge through Congressman Walsh of Massachusetts on the
ground that he was an American citizen and was not of age when he enlisted. He lives at
present at Oxford, Fairhaven, Mass., and is pursuing his vocation as barber at Lamothe's
shop, 1,385 Purchase Street, Neiv Bedford. He made notes of his experiences while in the
trenches, and the subjoined production was written by him from those notes in collaboration
with his friend Arthur L. Bouvier, editor of a local French newspaper at New Haven.— [Editor
CURRENT HISTORY.

THE true story of the trenches has
never been told. I know, because
for many months I have lived in
trenches. I have slept daily in
dread of bullet, shrapnel, mine, and dead-
ly gas; and nightly in fear of mine and
gas — and the man-eating rats.

I am one of the few soldiers living who
entered the front trenches at the opening
of the war and who lived to fight the
Germans in the front trenches in Febru-
ary, 1916. Of my original company, (the
Fourth of the Fourteenth Battalion,
Third Brigade, First Canadian Division,)
which marched away to that hell at La-
ventie and Ypres so gayly — 500 brave
boys — I am one of the sixteen who sur-
vive. And returning unexpectedly,
snatched by the American Government
out of the very jaws of death, with the
mud of the trenches still upon my cloth-
ing, I discovered how much American
people have been talking of the trenches
and how little, after all, they really
know.

Who has seen hell? Who has ex-
perienced the horrors of Milton's terrible
vision or the slow tortures of Dante's
inferno? God! If Dante's dream mad-
ness were truth, and those seven circles
were seven encircling battle lines in
Northern France or the torn fringe of
brave little Belgium, I could stand up
and say there is no agony of body or
mind which I have not seen, which I
have not experienced. I thank God and

give Him the glory that I still am sane.
Gas? What do you know of it, you
people who never heard earth and heav-
en rock with the frantic turmoil of the
ceaseless bombardment? A crawling yel-
low cloud that pours in upon you, that
gets you by the throat and shakes you
as a huge mastiff might shake a kitten,
and leaves you burning in every nerve
and vein of your body with pain unthink-
able; your eyes starting from their sock-
ets; your face turned yellow-green.

Rats? What did you ever read of the
rats in the trenches? Next to gas, they
still slide on their fat bellies through my
dreams. Poe could have got new inspira-
tion from their dirty hordes. Rats, rats,
rats — I see them still, slinking from new
meals on corpses, from Belgium to the
Swiss Alps. Rats, rats, rats, tens of
thousands of rats, crunching between
battle lines while the rapid-firing guns
mow the trench edge — crunching their
hellish feasts. Full fed, slipping and
sliding down into the wet trenches they
swarm at night — and more than one poor
wretch has had his face eaten off by
them while he slept.

Stench? Did you ever breathe air foul
with the gases arising from a thousand
rotting corpses? Dirt? Have you ever
fought half madly through days and
nights and weeks unwashed, with fever-
ish rests between long hours of agony,
while the guns boom their awful sym-
phony of death, and the bullets zip-zip-

THE HORRORS OF TRENCH FIGHTING

749

zip ceaselessly along the trench edge that
is your skyline — and your deathline, too,
if you stretch and stand upright?

Yes, I Romeo Houle, know the trench.
And but for Congressman Walsh and the
American Ambassador to England, and
the fact that I was under age when I
enlisted in Montreal — but for those men
and this fact I should still be fighting,
bleeding, and perhaps dying in some
dirty wet trench in
Northern France. I
longed for big adven-
tures, you see, and
now, ah, God! I am
sick of adventure, for
the adventures I have
had will plague my
sleep until I die.

You wouldn't be-
lieve all I have seen,
all I have left. Ah,
no; you would say,
" Romeo Houle, you
are lying," were I to
tell you some unbe-
lievable things that I
have really lived
through. Men go mad
over there. When you
know what life in the
first-line trenches is
like you will wonder
that I have returned,
and that, having re-
turned, I am still in
my right mind. Some-
times, at night, I find
myself again carrying
the wounded back after
the charge, and listen-
ing to dying soldiers telling me to look
into blood-soaked pockets for last letters
to their sweethearts or mothers back
home. " Tell mother that I received the
Blessed Sacrament before the battle be-
gan." I hear their breaking voices whis-
per, " Tell mother," while the thundering
artillery pours its curtain of fire upon us,
and our boys throw back from their rude,
hand-made sling shots their deadly
"jam-pots." "Tell mother!" I think all
the battle front is crying now those
words. O Mother of God, hear them
and end this needless butchery!

ROMEO HOULE

I fought at Ypres. I fought at St.
Julien. I fought at Lacouture and
Festubert. I fought at Cuinchy. I fought
at Givenchy and La Bassee, and in the
first-line trenches at Messines. And be-
fore all these I fought in the first line
at Richebourg and Laventie, and I live,
one of 16 alive out of 500.

I ,ani an American by birth and a
barber by occupation. I have shaved
men for my living in
New Bedford, Mass.,
and have shaved sol-
diers of necessity in
time to the cracking
of rifles in Northern
France. I chanced to
be in Montreal when
England declared war.
That was on Aug. 4,
1914. On Aug. 10 I
enlisted in the Sixty-
fifth Regiment of
French Canadians
commanded by Major
Barre of Montreal.
There were two New
England boys with
me in the regiment —
Henri Bertrand of At-
tleboro and a fellow
named Collette from
New Bedford. There
were 500 French Ca-
nadians — then — be-
tween the ages of 18
and 28. I left most of
them buried in un-
marked graves.

We left Montreal
on Aug. 25 for Val-
cartier, where they made out of a fair
barber a good soldier, I think. The Duke
and Duchess of Connaught inspected us
at Valcartier, and a brave sight we wera
in our new uniforms and our full and
gallant ranks. But the Duke and Duchess
would have shuddered could they hava
inspected us, say at Cuinchy or Messines.
Our 500 got thinner the older the wr.r
grew. Our 500 will be gone, I thinly
all gone but me, before the war is over.
I'd be gone, too, but for Congressman
Walsh and the American Government,
which, after all, is mine, and the one

750

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

I'd best die for, if die I must for any.
It was on Sept. 25 that I sailed with
my regiment for Plymouth, England, on
board the Cunarder Alunia. There were
1,000 men on board, half English, half
French.

Thirty-three vessels sailed together in
three rows of eleven boats each, with
three cruisers to left and three to right
of us, and one before and one behind to
guard us. So great was our dread of
German torpedoes and mines, it took us
twenty-one days to cross.

I was in the Seventh and Eighth Com-
panies of this French Canadian regiment,
the Sixty-fifth, but at the front my com-
pany was known as the Fourth of the
Fourteenth Battalion, Third Brigade,
First Canadian Division. The Alunia was
the second to land at Plymouth, and the
whole town turned out to give us a re-
ception, with houses decorated and flags
flying — for 484 of us a death bridal, in-
doed! Three days later we were reviewed
by Lord Roberts on Salisbury Plain, and
the King also inspected us. Thence we
marched to Larkhill, where we remained
until Feb. 12, 1915. Then we left for
France.

First came St. Nazaire; then Haze-
brouck, and a twelve-mile hike to Fletre,
a village in the north. We had a two
days' rest, and marched twenty-four
miles to Armentieres. At Armentieres I
first entered a trench. We trained there
with English troops. And we lay shiv-
ering in the rain for forty-eight hours,
and then gladly left for Richebourg, three
miles away.

At Richebourg we entered trenches of
our own. There Charles Lapointe of
Montreal, the first of our company to
die, looked over the edge of the trench.
That is death. Machine guns all day
sweep the trench edges. If you raise
your hand, your fingers will be cut off as
by a knife. And once I saw a poor
wretch, weary almost to death of the
trench, raise his right arm at full length.
He was sent home, maimed and in agony,
as he had wished. And who can say that
his act was cowardly? He who has lived
in the trenches for weeks and months
knows. The soldier had courage to raise
his hand. Perhaps some who clung to

the mud at the trench bottom were great-
er cowards than he.

Well, Lapointe looked over the trench
edge; and nobody knows what he saw.
His brother was there to lay him down.
He buried him (as we ever must the dead
at the front) in a shallow pit in our
trench. And the brother had for a time
the agony of having to fight and feel the
earth give over Charley's breast.

Two miles from there, at Laventie, we
fought in the first line again. A Ger-
man shell exploded over a pile of brush
in a field near where I was shooting to-
ward the German line. And we, weary
of the monotony of the fighting, were
overjoyed to see the ground covered far
and wide with potatoes, which some
farmer had hidden under hay. Potatoes !
We blessed our periscope for the tooth-
some vision. And, marvelous to relate,
we noted that the German fire slackened.
Our officers could not restrain the
French Canadians. On our bellies, over
the death line we crawled unscathed, and,
flat on the ground, wriggled to the pota-
toes, braving death for what we deem so
common in America.

I got my share. Nor did the flaming
sky pour upon us the leaden hail we
feared, for the Germans held their fire
while we gathered the crop we did not
plant.

Toward night, in the dusk, we discov-
ered by our spectroscope that the Ger-
man boys, who were cold in their trench-
es, were demolishing a house for fire-
wood, an old cottage, the property, per-
haps, of that very peasant who had hid-
den our potatoes under the hay. We
had their lives in our hands. We re-
membered our Irish feast — and word
went down the line to hold our fire. Nor
did one German die.

That was the Golden Rule of the bat-
tle front.

I slept in my blanket, my first night
under fire, with a lump of cheese at my
feet, as a bribe to the rats to spare my
face. Not that I slept much. The night
rocked with sound. The night is the true
time for fighting, and the wire-cutters
were creeping about on their dangerous
errands between the trenches. The rock-
ets now and then hissed skyward, throw-

THE HORRORS OF TRENCH FIGHTING

751

ing their powerful flares of light over
the darkened world. Wounded men
groaned. And rats, like flies in Summer,
scuttled about, making queer noises,
which we could hear in momentary lulls.
I had not lain there long before an of-
ficer called for volunteers to examine the
land between our trench and the enemy's
and repair our broken barbed wire en-
tanglements. The wires are destroyed
every day by the bombardment, and must
be repaired every night. It is a most dan-
gerous duty. Yet, I gladly volunteer,
with Aurele, Auguste, and other friends.

While we were at work upon the wires
the Germans threw up some flares and
turned our protecting darkness into the
glare of midday. They poured upon us a
deadly fire. We dropped among the dead
bodies which littered the ground. And
long I lay, sprawled across the corpse of
some brave German lad killed there many
days before — constrained to feign death
to save my life. But we did not all es-
cape. Martin of Montreal was killed and
many of our little party were wounded.
But, as usual, I came back at last, mov-
ing painfully on my stomach, uninjured.
I reported to Captain Desserre and told
him all that I had heard and seen. And
then I went back to sleep upon empty
sandbags; and a cold, cold night it was.

I awoke at 7 o'clock, sore and stiff. I
soon had kindled a little fire and cooked
a slice of bacon and steeped a little tea
for my chum, Aurele Roy of Montreal,
and myself.

" I can lick the whole German Army
alone this morning! " I exclaimed in
French, warmed by the tea.

" Not alone ! " cried Roy, reviving also
under the influence of our breakfast,
" for if you begin to lick 'em, I'll be be-
side you." And we laughed together,
little dreaming how soon our brave words
would be put to the test.

I did my turn at guard duty almost
cheerfully. I cleaned my rifle and
bayonet, shaved myself, and washed up a
little, and then thought I would get a
little more rest while I could. But, alas,
some one had stolen my two empty sand-
bags! So I took off my overcoat and
spread it on the ground and covered
myself with a blanket. The sun mean-

while was shining hotly on the heaps of
dead bodies which lay not far away out-
side the trench. I was glad to cover my
head with a blanket to shut out some
of the awful stench. And that is how
the smell of decaying bodies saved my
life.

Arthur Robillard, a car conductor back
in Montreal, was on guard duty. I was
roused when he fell over me. As I sat
up something got me by the throat and
began to strangle out my life. The air
was rent with awful cries. Many of my
comrades lay dying and dead about me.
I hurled myself in semi-madness into a
huge crater near by, made by a bursting
shell. There was a little muddy water
at the bottom, and I fell in it, face down.

The water relieved me a little, and I
wet my handkerchief in it and covered
my face. The green, stinking air was
thus shut out, and I began to breathe
easier. I crawled out, and half blindly
sought my unconscious chum, dragging
him back ten yards into the crater where
the water was. I laid him face down-
ward there, and he, too, revived a little,
and there we lay, waiting for death.

Ten minutes later, I heard a shouting,
and knew that the Germans were coming
fast. Then I ran back into my trench,
got my gun, and began firing as fast as
I could. The rifle soon became so hot
that it burned my hands. I threw it
down and began throwing bombs. The
order to retreat to the next trench came.
My half -strangled comrade was with me.
We ran together and, looking back, saw
the big, strapping gray fellows of the
Teuton army leaping down into our
trench.

I forgot the rheumatism from which I
had been suffering for several days when
I saw them come, (we all suffer from
rheumatism, it is one of the curses of the
trenches.) Meanwhile, the French had
retired to their fourth line, and we were
left, almost surrounded, with our left
flank exposed and annihilation threat-
ening us.

Somehow we got hold of two machine
guns, and placed them where they would
do the most good. One of these was run-
ning 560 shots a minute, and the other —
blessed French destroyer! — was pouring

752 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

out death at the rate of 700 shots a min-
ute.

I shall never forget those Germans.
When our guns suddenly spoke their
front line melted; their second crumpled
before this destruction; but on, on, on
they came, unflinching, marching with
even steps into certain death. We were
like lions at bay. It was our lives or the
Germans'. Then, as fourteen of us
fought together, a bomb dropped amid
us, and killed eleven. I came to con-
sciousness, lying in the bottom of a
trench, with Roy leaning over me.

" Are you living, Romeo ! " he ex-
claimed in amazement. I rose dizzily.
He and I and one other stood alone
among our eleven dead friends.

Then Roy told me that I had been
blown clear of the trench, twenty feet
from where I stood, and that he had
braved death to secure, as he supposed,
my dead body. A careful examination
showed that my only injury was a terri-
ble bruise on the calf of my leg, where
the round surface of a flying shard had
struck me, but without breaking the
skin. Miracles are but small matters
when you fight in the presence of death.

" I'm not afraid now," I told Roy. And
from then on I and all my soldier friends
believed my life was charmed and that
the Germans could not kill me.

We were driven back before their heavy
guns to the fourth line, and were almost
immediately told in haste to leave it as
quickly as we could. Our engineers had
mined the place, and as we fled the Ger-
mans poured down a gray horde of men.
So we blew them up.

Have you ever seen a thousand men
hurled to atoms by a giant blast? I
cannot forget that awful sight. The
whole earth seemed to leap skyward, and
through and through the black mountain
of earth and stones shot heads and arms
and legs, torn fragments of what were
once heroic men. Next to the gas which
they gave us, I think our blowing them
up like this was surely the worst thing
men could do to men.

Perhaps you have heard of the friend-
ship which often springs up between the
Allies and their foes. I know something
about it. It was at Laventie that the

Germans began to amuse themselves by
putting a bullseye on a biscuit box and
letting us use it for a target. We then
returned the compliment and set up a
similar bullseye for the Teuton boys. For
between Germans and Allies as indi-
viduals, there is no hate, though I must
except the treacherous German prisoner
I had to kill to save my life.

Every time the Germans made a bulls-
eye, I would raise a shovel. If they
missed, I put up a handkerchief. They
did the same for us. And so we who
sought each other's lives played together,
and death spoke sharply all around.

Sergeant Pichette was a wag. He put
an old derby on a stick and ran along
the trench as if it were a man, and the
Germans fired at it. He would pull the
hat down occasionally to make the ene-
my believe that the man under it had
been shot, but soon afterward he would
raise it again, thereby causing much
amusement.

We used to talk back and forth
— those German boys and we Canadians.
They were the 157th and most friendly.
" Hi! Where do you come from? " a voice
in French once called over to us.

" We are French Canadians," we re-
plied with pride.

" Well, we're Canadians, too," came the
astonishing answer. " We come from On-
tario."

There came a pause. There was no
firing. Then the German shouted, " Let
me see one of your group; let him stand
above the trench, and on my word of
honor we shall not fire."

One of us sprang out of the trench
and stood up. There fell a deep silence
upon the two armies. Then many stood
up, and finally the Germans, too, were
rising. We talked for hours so, when the
officers were not looking. When they
looked we did a deal of firing — but our
aim was much too high.

One day the Germans threw over a bit
of paper wrapped around a stone. " If
you don't fire on us, we won't fire on
you," some one had written. We kept
that strange pact for days, until the of-
ficers, discovering this pact of peace,
moved us to another part of the trenches.

Some months later, curiously enough,

THE HORRORS OF TRENCH FIGHTING

753

we found ourselves opposite the same
regiment. Neither side forgot we were
both Canadian, and steadfastly kept our
treaty of peace. They did not consider
that rough note a " scrap of paper." Not
a single shot was fired and only one man
was killed, and he by a stray bullet.

Because friendships started easily be-
tween hostile bodies, they kept moving a
regiment from one part of the trenches
to another, that we might not get too
friendly with our enemies. We had no
heart in the butchery, Germans or we
French Canadians.

A big part of trench warfare is the
mining operations. I feared the mines
more than anything, I think. It was
more terrible than gas poisoning to think
that at any moment the earth would be
rent and you would be thrown a thou-
sand ways at once. The mining opera-
tions were carried on by trained miners,
who burrow along under ground about
fifteen feet below the surface.. The en-
gineers in charge figure out just how
far they must dig to reach positions un-
der the German lines, and when they
have done so a fuse is run in — and Fritz
and Hans and their friends jump fifty
feet toward heaven.

We do this; the Germans do it. It is
bad work. And on both sides, we have
to keep men listening all the time for the
digging. When it is discovered that a
mine is coming our way, we sink a tunnel
deeper still and blow up their tunnel.
And the Germans do the same thing with
our mines. The soldier in the trench
never knows when he may be blown into
small pieces — and that is why we always
preferred to risk uncertain dangers be-
tween the lines at night, instead of lying
down in the wet trench, helplessly wait-
ing for death.

I never felt so secure, indeed, as when
I was on guard between the trenches,
through all the night I could hear the
bullets go over me. Men go crazy there.
And the insane are sent to England. But
sometimes men go mad and become a
menace to their own comrades and of-
ficers. They sometimes have to be
killed. And there have been times when
I have crouched in some first-line trench,
where no communication trench joined us

to the second or third line, when no doc-
tor could reach us. And I have seen men
so terribbly wounded, enduring such
agonies, and screaming so heart-break-
ingly for somebody to kill them, that our
boys have done what they asked, to save
them the unnecessary horror of living
dismembered.

And I have seen men of good health
grow so weary of the trenches that they
have simply stood up at noonday. Some
machine guns swiftly ended them. And
others, as I have written, simply stick
up their hands above the trench top and
bullets trim off their fingers.

I was twenty days at Laventie. We
only had the regular rifle shooting there,
and were fortunate in losing not a single
man of our 500 by bombs. We then
marched to a point about one mile to the
right of the now famous Neuve Chapelle,
where we caught the Germans by sur-
prise and took nearly 3,000 prisoners.

For two days and two nights I was fir-
ing continuously. My rifle became so hot
that I had to fill my hands with dirt be-
fore firing. The fighting became so
fierce that we had to employ men to do
nothing else but carry ammunition to us
from 200 yards in the rear. We were
two and one-half miles to the left of the
British. The Germans, but for us, could
have got reinforcements, but we Cana-
dians were in the way. We expected, at
first, to attack them, as they were only
sixty yards away. We had constructed
special bridges to cross a ten-yard stream
near by. Our work was to fire upon the
German reserves in the rear, and this we
easily did, because our guns carried for
two miles. The Germans were defeated
largely because they supposed the Brit-
ish had plenty of reinforcements.

The whole thing began suddenly at 2 :30
in the morning, after a quiet day. It was
an earthquake. Our company until then
had fought in no real battle and had
lost only five men. Other companies
used to declare that we had some guar-
dian angel to protect us. Anyhow, many
say that I had some guardian angel to
protect me — and I am sure that I did.

Three men volunteered to go and cut
the wire entanglements. Bullets were
humming through the air. They crawled

754 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

forth— to their deaths, we thought— but
succeeded in cutting nearly all. So the
Germans thought we were about to at-
tack them. As soon as the Germans dis-
covered what our men had done, we
poured a withering fire over the broken
wires, so that no man could live to reach
and repair them.

The English bombarded the Germans
for two whole days. Then we heard cries,
and fast by us went the Black Watch, a
Scotch regiment, and the Coldstream
Guards. It was between 4 and 5 in the
morning that they passed us, and within
ten minutes they had captured the three
first lines of the Germans.

The Germans lost 25,000 men and 3,000
prisoners. Our loss was between 10,000
and 12,000. Two days later troops came
to relieve us, and in time, for we were
well-nigh exhausted. We marched at
night to Estaire, a pretty village eight
miles away. Our men were so worn out
that they dropped from weariness on the
way. We spent eight days in this town
and were royally treated by the
French.

At midnight of the eighth day we were
warned to get ready for marching again.
We walked twenty-seven kilometers to
Cassel, where General Dorrien, who was
in charge of the battle when the English
retreated from Mons in France, in the
early part of the war, told us that he was
going to take charge of the whole
Canadian division, and that our regiment
would be transferred to another army
corps. He gave us three days' rest, and
told us we were to occupy French
trenches at Ypres.

THE BATTLE OF YPRES
Ypres is the graveyard of the old
Sixty-fifth. We were carried to within
six miles of the place in London buses,
twenty-five men in a bus. Ypres was
forty miles away. We met there the
Canadian Scottish Third Brigade of 5,000
men. From the end of the bus line we
tramped six miles and encamped outside
the village of St. Julien, one mile away.
Two battalions were in reserve at St.
Jean and two were in the front line, mine
being one of the two at the front.

It was at Ypres that we first met the
gallant French troops. My company was

on the left of the English line, so that
we acted as interpreters between the
French and the English. A roadway ten
yards wide separated the two lines and a
tunnel ran from the English to the
French lines.

We found the trenches here to be
forty yards from the German line and in
bad condition. Firing was continuous,
by day and by night. The communica-
tion trenches were in bad shape, too, and
the Germans, who were on a height,
raked us terribly with their machine
guns. I looked through my periscope
and saw between 400 and 500 unburied
German dead lying between the lines. I
counted 25 dead Frenchmen among them.
Three months before, I was told, the
Germans had tried to carry the line and
neither side had given the other a chance
to bury its dead.

Our French neighbors were Zouaves,
between 19 and 30 years of age, and the
gayest soldiers I have ever fought beside.
They sang gay ditties and called us
French Canadians " Freres." We spent
our nights in throwing grenades at the
Boches and our days in the slow monot-
ony of every-day trench life.

I rose at noon, the day after our ar-
rival, and took the time to shave, a rare
event. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, at
one mile from us, we saw yellow smoke
rising from the ground. This smoke was
the deadly gas being thrown upon the
French and upon the Sotch regiment that
had taken our places while we were rest-
ing, for, of course, we were resting when
I shaved. We formed at once in light
marching order and went to help the
Scotch.

We entered the reserve trench, and at
midnight the first-line trench. The
Scotch had lost half of their effectives
and were returning with the French, the
blood streaming from their mouths and
noses, and their faces all yellow-green.
The French had lost nearly all their regi-
ment. The Germans within five minutes
had occupied our first and second lines.

In half an hour the Boches began a
great bombardment. At 7 o'clock they
tried to take our line, repeating their at-
tacks all the night, but we rolled them
back. They came even to within ten

THE HORRORS OF TRENCH FIGHTING

755

yards of us, a flood of human waves. But
our machine guns, our " coffee grinders,"
as we called them, mowed them down like
hay, and we lost not many men.

Our artillery had plenty of ammuni-
tion. Our light guns were placed at 400
yards from the front line and the heavy
artillery at one and a half miles, and
some pieces as far as four miles away.
The famous French Africans, called Sen-
egalese, were fighting here with us. The
Boches set fire to the City of Ypres in
the night, and I watched its sullen glare
against the sky. The civilian populace
went running by, in dreadful condition.
That night, of my friends, died Vaillant,
Poitras, and Bond, all of Montreal, and
two others. Poirer and Lefebre of Mon-
treal and 0. Wiseman, also my friends,
had been killed during the day. Yet I
lived!

Ypres was a famous battle, one of the
greatest of the war, I think, till this
terrible onslaught at Verdun. Our di-
vision (Canadian) reached from Ypres
(Belgium) to Poelcappelle RoagL At 2
A. M., before the gas overtook me, I
was sent out between the lines with an-
other man to examine the wire entangle-
ments. We heard a sound as of some
one handling pipes, but discovered nothing
more. Then the Boches sent up their
flares (skyrockets whose bursting bombs
turned night into daylight) and we lay
on the ground motionless. In the dark-
ness which followed, we crept back over
the heaps of dead toward our line. When
I had almost reached the trench, another
great flare burst right over us, and I
had to lie still for several long moments
until the welcome darkness gave me an
opportunity to drop into the trench again.

Men were dying from the gas, their eyes
popping, their faces green, and crying:
"Water! Water! I'm choking! Air! Air!
Air ! " It is a frightful thing to hear
your friends crying like that. I saw one
die right before my eyes, rolling upon the
ground as if mad, tearing at his chest.
His fingers were crooked after his death,
his body full of blue spots and his mouth
white. Another poor wretch fell two or
three feet from me, dying from the gas.
He was sucking water from a dirty hand-
kerchief.

Listen! Suppose you were fighting in
a trench. The wind comes toward you,
foul with odors from nameless, twisted,
torn bodies unburied between you and the
Boches. Near you are your brave com-
rades. Some lie wounded and dying in
agony on the trench bottom. The bullets
zing-zing eternally over your head. There
is a mighty swelling from an organ
more sonorous than ever human organist
played. The rockets are bursting; the
flares shedding white glares over the torn
ground. Your coffee grinders are mow-
ing them down.

Then, rising from somewhere near by,
comes the gas, yellow or green. Then
comes a sudden stinging in your nose.
Your eyes water and run. You breathe
fire. You suffocate. You burn alive.
There are razors and needles in your
throat. It is as if you drank boiling hot
tea. Your lungs flame. You want to
scratch and tear your body. You become
half blind, half wild. Your head aches
beyond description, you vomit, you drop
exhausted, you die quickly.

Every other man seemed to fall. As I
fought I marveled that I was spared.
And again came to me the belief that
my life was charmed; that the bullet had
not been melted, the shrapnel not been
loaded, the gas not mixed which would
cause my death. An ecstatic confidence
buoyed me up. I was brave, because I
was so sure of life, while all my com-
rades seemed groveling in death.

My platoon was under a withering fire,
before which we crumpled and melted
away. We left the trench, pressing for-
ward. All hell seemed to rise suddenly
from the bowels of the earth and pour
over us flame and molten lead. The
ground seethed from the exploding shells.
The mitrailleuses vomited death.

Our thinned lines gave a yell. I saw
a black hole in the ground. Sergeant Al-
bert Pichette shouted, " Into their
trench ! " I leaped in. Four Germans
were trying to escape on the further
side. I did no't fire, intending to make
them prisoners. But the only thing I
took was a great blow on the side of my
head, and away went my prisoners.

I crawled up the trench a few feet and
came upon two men trying to strangle

756 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

each other. I though, then, of motion
pictures I had watched back home. Here
was a more terrible drama than ever the
movie camera showed.

A bayonet charge is a street fight
magnified and made ten thousand
times more fierce. It becomes on close
range almost impossible to use your bay-
onets. So we fought with fists and feet,
and used our guns, when possible, as
clubs. We lay in our prize trench for
about four hours. The boys, excited be-
cause they still lived, sang and jested,
and told of queer experiences and nar-
row escapes they had had.

By 10 o'clock came the story that the
British had lost four field guns and
asked our help to recapture them. I was
one of twenty-one from my company who
volunteered to go. So we joined men
from the Tenth and Sixteenth Battalions,
and at 11 o'clock prepared to storm the
wood where the cannons were.

We had only forty yards of open
ground to cover, but the German artil-
lery and machine guns worked havoc
among us. It did not take us long to run
those forty yards.

We were scon in the wood, where it
was so dark that we could hardly distin-
guish friend from foe.

I ran in and out among the trees and
asked every one I met who he was. I
came upon one big fellow. My mouth
opened to ask him who he was, when his
fist shot out and took me between the
eyes. I went down for the count, but I
knew who he was — he was a German. I
got up as quickly as I could, you may be
sure, and swung my rifle to hit him in
the head, but the stock struck a tree and
splintered. I thought I had broken all
my fingers.

I found three wounded men, French, I
thought they were, in that gloom. So I
carried them into our trench. As I
brought in the last one, the officer said,
" You are doing good work, Houle." I
asked him why he thought so, and he
answered : " You have brought in three
wounded men and when we put the light
on them we found they were Germans."
Well, I am glad I saved them. I would
have done so anyhow, had I known their
nationality. For we were all trained to

give a wounded man help, whether he
were friend or foe.

Yet it is dangerous work, helping a
wounded German. I never helped an-
other, after the experience I had. It was
one of the two occasions when I knew
with certainty that I killed a man. He
was a wounded German soldier. We
found him suffering and weak. But we
knew we could save his life and were
dressing his wound. My back was
turned. He took a revolver out of his
tunic pocket and fired pointblank at me.
I do not know how I escaped death.
Perhaps it was because his hand shook
from weakness; perhaps my guardian
saint turned aside that death bullet.
Anyhow, he had his revolver in his hand.
We had to act quickly. My officer spoke
a quick word, and I made sure that he
would never fire another shot.

Well, we got our machine guns. But
the Germans had blown them up, and all
our sacrifice of men was in vain.

We were relieved by a British regiment
before morning and marched back to our
billets to have a rest. I slept all the rest
of the night until 11 o'clock the next
morning. It was the first rest I had had
in forty-eight hours, with only a slice of
raw bacon and a piece of bread to eat.

These were little incidents of the
bloody battle at Ypres. That afternoon
some of the boys brought out tables
from a house and placed them in the
sun. The civilian populace, in their
flight, had left behind their live stock.
We caught some hens and rabbits and
cooked them in wine we found in a cellar.
Ah, that was a feast. I never had a
better one.

Yet we were strange feasters. Had
some artist been able to paint us he
would have had a strong canvas. Some
of the boys had their heads bandaged,
and nearly all of us were covered
with dirt and blood. Some sang for us,
though others were downhearted. It
surprised me that a few hours after we
had faced death and had been suffering
untold hardships we could now gather
like college boys at a beer night feast
and sing.

During the rest of that battle we lived
in the reserve trenches, bombarded day

THE HORRORS OF TRENCH FIGHTING

757

and night. The battle lasted twenty-one
days. When it was over they called a
roll of our regiment. There were 500 of
us when we left Montreal. As the com-
mander called the roll, name after name
was met with no response. At Ypres 480
out of 500 of us were left dead on the
field. And in reality our loss had been
greater than that, for our 500 had been
thinned out in other actions and filled
with a full roster again. Twenty of us
out of 500 survived at Ypres.

We fought madly at St. Jean, after
Ypres, and retreated. We rested eight
days at Bailleul, marched through Steev-
werck and rested eight more days there;
we also rested at Estaires for eight days,
then through Vieille Chapelle, and then
had another eight days' rest. We reached
Lacouture at night and went into battle
again at Richebourg.

We arrived there in May, 1915. Riche-
bourg is in France, eight miles from the
Belgian border, on the English front. A
very small agricultural village we found
it, coming to it after a hard twelve-hour
hike from Bailleul. We got into the
Richebourg trenches in the evening.

I found myself in a German trench,
captured by the British. Five hours
before the battle had raged, and the
place was still full of wounded and dead,
both German and British. Trench by
trench we worked our way into the
British front line. We had been rein-
forced by the Twelfth Battalion of re-
serves, which was made up of French
Canadians and Englishmen; thus our
decimated regiment was swelled to 365
men.

The battle was going on. Relieving
the front line proved a dangerous task.
We had to proceed cautiously to avoid
bullets, and it took us three hours to
reach the front line, which we did at
midnight. Ten of our men were killed
by shrapnel or stray bullets on the way.
Then came the report from our left
that the Germans were trying to counter-
attack. Our officers called for volunteers
for a bomb and hand grenade throwing
party. We were gone twenty minutes,
fifteen of us in all; three of us were
wounded, and Carrier of Montreal was
killed. We were able to report on our re-

turn that we had done effective work.
After that things quieted down and gave
us a breathing spell.

The next morning we were ordered to
take the German first-line trenches. Our
cannon began to clear the way first at 2
o'clock in the morning. The famous
French 75— the French 75 which is al-
ways helping the English at difficult
times — blasted out the pathway over
which we were to charge. We had thirty-
two of these 75s — four guns to each of
the eight batteries. When worked hard,
these guns can fire twenty shots a
minute.

We were all Catholics. At 5:30 o'clock
we began to say our prayers, and soon
after we were charging with fixed bay-
onets. We had no great difficulty in
taking two lines of trenches. But when
we reached the third, they rallied and
drove us out. There the Germans made
a counterattack, raking our flanks with
their machine guns as soon as we reached
their third trench. They killed 75 of us,
wounded over 100, and took 20 prisoners.
We were obliged to leave our wounded in
their trench with the dead.

I lay until night in the German second-
line trench, among the dead and wounded.
There was, of course, no communication
and we could not clear the place we had
taken or get medical help for the men
who writhed in agony all around us. A
company of Highlanders from the Thir-
teenth and Fourteenth Battalions came
to our relief at night. The Highlanders
and my company were given orders to
capture an orchard on our left. Through
this orchard ran the German trench.
German snipers were concealed in the
old apple trees, and the place seemed
one huge shrapnel, which burst and never
ceased bursting. Three-quarters of our
men were killed. And I, as usual, was
among the unwounded survivors.

We took the orchard trench, but were
glad enough to retire at the counterat-
tack, and unfortunately lost our orchard
and our third trench. Listen! Out of
250 Highlanders, only forty came back.
Of my own company, (which you will re-
member had been reinforced to 365 men,)
only seventy came back. And Romeo
Houle, with the charmed life, was again

758 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

among the few who returned, and had
not a single wound.

About one and one-half miles on the
right of Richebourg, we took up a new
position, after three days' rest in a vil-
lage next to Lacouture. The Scots Greys
and the Coldstream Guards were in the
trenches. To our surprise, they greeted
us with shouts and cheers. We asked
them why they cheered us so. They an-
swered that they thought so well of the
Canadians that, helped by them, they
would encounter any odds. The shooting
was then going on; the Scotch had tried
to advance and had been pushed back.
When our company came, we all tried to
advance together. Again our company
had been reinforced, this time to 420 men.

The Germans occupied a hilly place.
Although they were only sixty yards
away, we fought back and forth for an
hour. Our first two charges were
stopped by their entanglements. The
wires in many places were not down at
all and we could not pass. Then our
artillery began to mow among the wires.
In thirty minutes our way was clear,
and on the third tussle we got into the
German trench. It was a close fight.
We used even our fists. My bayonet was
broken, and I used my gun as a club.
There we remained until we got rein-
forcements. Out of 420 men, my com-
pany was reduced to eighty. No, I could
not be killed.

We were at Cuinchy only two days, but
we took three lines of trenches there, and
retreated. The dead we left on the field
covered the barbed wire entanglements.
The Germans in their counterattack came
at us in serried ranks. Our coffee grind-
ers smashed their first, their second, their
third lines, but they came on and on, re-
sistless as a flood. We could not but give
way and withdraw before that awful ad-
vance. They cared not for the lives of
men, but thought only of the ground they
gained. Every foot they advanced cost
them many, many lives. But those
trenches from which we retreated are
now occupied by the British. All their
silly outlay of men was in vain.

To the south of Cuinchy, we fought
at Givenchy. Five days we were in the
third line, and four in the first. German

mortars opposite us were belching forth
thunderous volumes of flame and death.
Chaos was at Givenchy. Lightning lashed
us — the swift lightning of 10,000 rifles
and great batteries of field guns. Yet
we destroyed their mortars and took
fifty prisoners. Do you wonder that I am
still proud that I fought there — proud of
the French Canadians? What soldiers
ever fought more valiantly? Who ever
gave their lives in a noble cause more
gladly? Who ever met certain death
more steadfastly and unafraid? What-
ever I think of war — and before I am
done, I shall tell — whatever I think of
war, I say that braver soldiers never
lived or died than the gallant French
Canadians. But oh! I am sorry to think
how their handsome lines have been
thinned — thinned more than most people
know.

Two of our men cared for ten prison-
ers. A Sergeant led them away. I sup-
pose that they are in England now,
spectacles for the curious. They were
brave men. I am sorry for their captiv-
ity, on their account; but glad to see
their terrible martial strength thus eb-
bing. When we took a trench, the Ger-
mans would throw up their hands and
cry " Comrade." The Saxon Germans
always surrender the quickest, because
they are so nearly akin to the English.
The Bavarian Germans and the Prussian
Guards are different propositions.

At Bethune, a town of 50,000 popula-
tion, we had a ten-day rest. They shifted
us to Oblingham — and then another rest.
And then three more weeks of fighting
at La Bassee. It was the same story!

I had fought in the first line of the
battle front until all the bed I knew was
wet earth, and all the rest I knew were
snatches of sleep obtained during lulls in
the rocking tumult. From almost the
very opening of the war I had fought.
And long since I had had my fill of the
fighting.

The American Consul at London wrote
me a letter. It came, I remember well,
in October, 1915. It brought me my first
ray of hope — my first real hope of life.
For I knew that that strange chance
which had spared me so many months,
when so many of my comrades had died,

THE HORRORS OF TRENCH FIGHTING

759

would not always be mine. I knew that
death fought by my side in the day and
slept with me in the night. I saw him
grinning at me from the twisted features
of those shot in the battle. I heard him
gibbering on the horrible field at night!

The Ambassador gave me the hope
that, having been under age and an
American by birth when I enlisted, my
Government might secure my discharge.
Influential friends were working for me.

On Jan. 10, 1916, in the forenoon, I was
notified to report to headquarters, 300
yards behind our firing line. I laid low
in the front trench all day, fearful lest at
the last moment I should be shot. For a
friend, who had obtained a long furlough
for rest in England, on the very eve of
his departure, had been killed by my side
a few days before. It seemed so pitiful
an ending, just when he was going home.

So eager was I to leave, that I planned
the best I could how to escape. But I
knew that if I yielded and went, I should
forfeit my life. By a great effort, I re-
strained myself. But at 4:30 o'clock I
could stand it no longer. My friends
wept at the parting — for joy for my sake
that I was going back to life; for grief
that they were left, to die probably, so
far from their fair Canada.

At 4:30 o'clock, then, with last hand-
grips and the well-wishes of all, I jumped
a little ditch and crept on hands and
knees in a circuitous way to the head-
quarters.

I walked seven miles to the railroad.
The firing sank away. The trenches and
their fevers, their wounded and dead,
their noxious odors and their deadly
gases, and the man-eating rats — all be-
came a memory. I was free, going home
to my wife and child, my parents, my
friends, unwounded.

I take no credit for any special cour-
age in the field. If I was brave, it was
because I had to be so. We were all
brave, who kept our senses. We became
accustomed to a large degree to the in- •
cessant intimacy with dangers and death.
We could look without wincing at fright-
ful things. And yet— I have promised
to write what I think of war.

I know not what word could adequately
describe war. Man's poets have never

imagined any description terrible enough.
" Hell " is too weak a word, after Ypres
and Richebourg. It is all a great slaugh-
ter house, legalized by Princes and Kings.
And it is more horrible than the slaugh-
ter house, because the forms of death
planned are more cruel, more mad, more
devilish.

I was not altogether free from hurts.
There is a dent in my skull from a spent
bullet, which failed to kill me. And I got
a terrible bruise on the leg from a shard
that did not break the skin. But I live,
thank God, one out of the 16 of those 500
men, most of whom we left behind at
Ypres.

If you Americans have the choice, nev-
er vote for war. You do not know what
war is, who have not seen it. I did not
know. I could not know. It is not like
the sanguinary conflicts of the civil
war — they were little fisticuff battles
compared to this gigantic slaughter of
heroes. Now calm science, cruel, unut-
terably cruel, calculating a hundred
deaths with the precision of the crazed
murderer, lays out the battle schemes,
and goes seeking through science for new
forms of death more horrible than the
old. We fight underground and under-
sea, on the land and in the air. We fight
with fire, with steel, with lead, with poi-
sons, with gases, with burning oil. We
are lower than the brutes, lower than the
lowest and most degraded forms of life.

I do not know why we fought. No
Archduke's little life was worth the titan-
ic butchery of the world war. The be-
ginning was petty and small. And I,
looking back at horror, horror, horror,
cannot forget the extraordinary friend-
ships we made with the men in the en-
emy's trenches. We were both only hu-
man beings, after all, Fritz and I. We
had no wish to kill each other. We had
much rather sit at the same table, with
our wives and children around us, and
talk of gardens, of fair pictures, and of
great, books. But for our officers and
the nations which they represented peaca
would have been declared right there in
the trenches — and that by the soldiers
themselves.

I am only Romeo Houle, a barber. But
I have lived— God, I have lived! All the

760

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

slaughter of heroes by the Meuse and on
the Belgian border and in Northern
France has passed before my eyes. And
I, Romeo Houle, am forced to write this :
Man is given life to enjoy it, not to de-
stroy it. We cannot make ourselves bet-
ter or the world we live in more worth

while by killing each other like beasts
gone mad.

I thank God that the nightmare is over.
Only in my dreams do the cannon roar
over the line at Ypres. And such dreams
are quite terrible and real enough. I
hope never to fight again.

In the Hospital

By SERGEANT ROBERT BEARNS

The author of this poem, now recovering" from a severe wound, was an English miner before

he joined the army.

He 'adn't no shinin' 'elmet on,

Nor 'E 'adn't no bloomin' sword,
But somehow the pains o' my wound was gone

When the King come into the ward ;
There wasn't a 'aporth o' frill or fuss,

Just a' officer smart an' trim,
An' I couldn't 'elp turning and saying to nurse,

" Do you think as it's really 'Im? "

'E come up and stood by the side o' my bed,

And 'eld out his 'and to me ;
" Where was you peppered, my son? " 'E said,

Or that's what 'E meant it to be.
We chatted away in no make-pretend—

That wasn't his royal plan.
'E was a King and a soldier's friend,

So we chinwagged man to man.

'E knew all about where the boys 'ad been,

And what the battalion had done ;
An' when 'E had gone, then up come the
Queen,

Who spoke to us one by one.
'Er smile 'ad a kind o' a wit o' tears,

A something that seemed to say,
" I know how you suffer, you poor old dear,

Don't I wish I could help you today."

An' I've been thinking things out a bit

As to what we are fighting for,
And why the best of our British grit

Must go to this 'Ell of a war.
And talking away to King and Queen

So 'omely, has give me the clue,
An' this seems to be the 'ang o' the thing,

I fancy I've got it true.

All us as is under the Union Jack

We works on a family plan ;
We are all expected to do our whack,

But a man may be a man.
'E may earn less than a quid a week,

An' 'is notions may be queer,
But what 'e thinks 'e's allowed to speak,

And the slop won't interfere.

There's something that binds us that isn't
force,

Which means that we're jolly well free ;
An' that's the thing that brought, o' course,

Our chaps from beyond the sea.
Now the Kaiser considers like this, perhaps,

"Men! You! D'ye see any green?
We'll do the thinkin', we top-notched chaps,

You are bits of a bloomin' machine."

An' more'n ever I know today,

As I'm going back to fight
For 'ome, an' freedom, an' kids at play,

And things as is true and right.
And whether I live or chance to die,

As the fates of war may bring,
Above us the same old flag shall fly,

And so— God save the King !

THE EUROPEAN WAR AS
SEEN BY CARTOONISTS

[Spanish Cartoon]

A Peace Overture

—From the Campana de Gracia, Barcelona.

" May I have the pleasure of your company? "
"Thanks! First go and wash your hands."

761

[French Cartoon]

Modern War

—Jean Veber in L' Esprit Satirique en France.
The Brute Let Loose.

Glory!

— By Sleinlen, French Cartoonist.

[English Cartoon]

A Case of Injustice

—From The Sketch, London.

TOMMY: "They takes me from 'ome, an' bungs me into barricks. They takes
away my clothes an* puts me inter khaki. They takes away my name an' gives
me a number — 005. They sends me ter church, an' after a forty-minutes sermon,
the Parson says: ' Number 005: " Art thou weary? " ' I jumps up an' ses ' Yus! '
an' gets fourteen days C. D. for givin' a civil answer! How'd I know he meant the
hymn and not me? "

763

"{German Cartoon]

At the Close of the Entente Conference

— © Kladderadcttch, Berlin.

" And now, gentlemen, in order to get at least one cheerful picture of the con-
ference, please — look pleasant! "

764

[English Cartoon]

Peas and Plenty

— From The Bystander, London.
A magnificent suggestion for the future in all the warring countries.

765

[French Cartoon]

Spring

—By Abel Truchet, French Artist.
" How black the nightingales are, this year ! "

—Forain in L'Opinion, France.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE FRONT: "What's the odds? It's life!"

766

[American Cartoon]

Kitchener's Grave

—From The New York Times.

767

[Canadian Cartoon]

Disappointment After Disappointment

—From The Calgary News-Telegram.

Another Bomb That Failed to Explode.

768

[German Cartoon]

Military Courtesies

— © Fliegende Blaetter, Munich.

" Well, General, what is your son doing- on the eastern front? "
" The same as yours — taking prisoners."

769

[French Cartoon]

The Mystery of the Blockade

The Hand That Grips.

770

[English Cartoon]

A Fragment From Germany

—From The Bystander, London.

" Look here, Frau H., if you want to stick nails into anything there's my statue
eutside."

771

[English Cartoons]

The Schwein-Hun and the Moslem

GERMANY TO TURKEY: " You must get over your prejudice against pork — you've
just got to love me."

The Wolfs Explanation

" What proof had I that it would not attack me? "

772

[French Cartoon]

Hands Across the Sea

[In the submarine crisis]

" President Wilson has grasped the hand that Germany extended to him.'
Frankfort Gazette.

773

[Italian Cartoon]
An Untimely Plea

[French Cartoon]
The War in German Style

—From the Numero, Turin. —From the Paris Matin.

DEATH : " I am weary of work — don't MEXICAN INSURGENT : " Down with the

send me any more victims." United States! '

CROWN PRINCE: "Are you mad? I THE SINN FEINERS: " Long live the

have just got papa's permission to make Irish Republic.

20 000 corpses " BOTH TOGETHER : " Deutschland uber

alles ! "

[Italian Cartoon]
Holland's Precarious Position

*• [French Cartoon]

The Modern Don Quixote

ing?

-From Fischietto, Turin. _wm Apoiogies to Gustave Dore.

And the mill begins to turn." « We love Don Quixote, and sometimes

' But who knows for whom it is grind- recognize ourselves in him." — Professor

r»9 " TIT-

von Wieze.

774

[English Cartoon]

The Biter Bit

—From The Sketch, London.

THE COCK: "Hullo, Billy! What's the matter?"

THE GOAT: "Matter? I've eaten a lot of recruiting posters and a packet of
peace pamphlets, and the row going on inside is something awful! "

775

[French Cartoon]

M. Poilu Visits His Godmother

— © Le Rire, Paris.

"Yes, I killed fifty-six; they all had an iron cross."
"Was it in Artois? "
" No, in my flannels."

776

[German Cartoon]

A Guilty Conscience

— © Jugend, Munich.

NORTHERN NEUTRAL : " My dear Jorgensen, I feel like a criminal. Yesterday
my wife presented me with twins, and England at present allows us only one."

777

[English Cartoon]

More Than He Bargained For

•—From The Bystander, London.

ATLAS: "Well, really this is getting a bit too hot for me."

778

[English War Poster]

THE EMPIRE NEEDS MEN!

THE
OVERSAS

answer the

Helped by the YO LIONS
The OLD LION defies his Foes

ENLIST NOW.

Another striking call that helped to make a record for voluntary enlistment
in England.

779

[English War Poster]

TAKE UP THE
SWORD OF JUSTICE

One of the historic posters that helped to recruit England's millions now in
the trenches.

780

Progress of the War

Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events

From May 12 Up to and Including

June 11, 1916

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE

May 12— Germans carry 500 yards of British
trenches near Hulluch, but lose part of the
ground in counterattack.

May 16— British occupy 250 yards of German
trenches on Vimy Ridge.

May 18— Germans fail in heavy attacks on
French positions in Avocourt Woods and
on Hill 304.

May 20— Germans win part of French trenches
on northern slope of Dead Man Hill.

May 22-23— French regain offensive at Verdun
and take Fort Douaumont.

May 24— Germans retake Fort Douaumont
and drive French out of Cumieres.

May 25— Germans take trenches west of
Douaumont.

May 27— French force themselves back into
Cumieres and advance near Dead Man
Hill and Douaumont.

May 29-31— Germans gain ground on the west
bank of the Meuse ; French capture strong
German position southwest of Dead Man
Hill.

June 1-3 — Germans penetrate advance trench-
es between Douaumont and Vaux.

June 4— Germans bombard Fort Vaux.

June 6 — British first line broken at Hooge,
east of Ypres.

June 7— Vaux garrison surrenders to Ger-
mans.

June 9-11— French repulse attacks at Hill 304 ;
Ypres bombarded.

CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE

May 12— Germans resume offensive in sector

north of Selburg station near Jacobstadt.
May 17— Russians defeat Germans near Lake

Sventen and advance in the Olyka region.
May 24— Germans drive Russians out of

trench near Pulkarn.
June 5— Russians start sudden offensive along

the entire line from the Pripet marches

to the Rumanian frontier.
June 6-7— Russian advance continues ; over

40,000 Austrians taken prisoner.
June 8— Russians recapture fortress of Lutsk.
June 10— Russians advance five miles beyond

Lutsk and push on between Buczacz and

Potok.

June 11— Fortress of Dubno captured by Rus-
sians ; 409 officers and 35,000 men taken

prisoner.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

May 12— Intense artillery action along the
Trentino, particularly in the Col di Lana
zone.

May 16-17— Austro-Hungarian troops begin
successful offensive on entire front, cap-
turing many positions in Southern Tyrol,
and reporting 141 officers and 6,200 men
taken prisoner.

May 18— Austrians extend gains on the Dober-
do Plateau.

May 19— Italians evacuate the line between
Monte Maggio and the uppper Astico Val-
ley, and Zugnatorta in the Lagarina Val-
ley.

May 20— Italians abandon Col Santo.

May 21 — Italians check offensive in the La-
garina Valley and retake Astico defenses.

May 22— Austrians carry Armentara Peak
and clear Italian forces out of Lavarone
Plateau.

May 23 — Austrians gain in the Sugana Val-
ley and take fortification of Monte Veina ;
Bulgars are aiding Austrians on the Ison-
zo front.

May 27 — Italians driven from positions west
of Bacarola ; Austrians occupy peak of
Monte Cimone and Batalo in the upper
Posina Valley.

May 31— Austro-Hungarian troops force a
passage across the Posina River to the
west of Arsiero and take fortified works
of Punta Cordin, but are repulsed in the
Lagarina Valley.

June 3 — Italians halt Austrian attacks along
the entire front in the Trentino and re-
conquer Belmonte position northeast of
Monte Cengio.

June 4 — Austrians checked on the Arsiero
front.

June 5 — Italians fall back in the Cengio
zone ; Austrian attacks on position at
Coni Zugna, in the Lagarina Valley, re-
pulsed.

June 7— Italians make successful counter-
attack on Austrians near Campo Mulo.

June 8 — Italians advance in the upper Tellina
Valley.

June 9 — Italians give ground in Sette Com-
muni battle.

June 11 — Italians repulse attacks on Monte
Lemerle.
IN ASIA MINOR AND EGYPT

May 14 — Russians repulse Turks in the re-
gion of Baiburt.

782 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

May 19— Russian cavalry joins British on
the Tigris: Turks vacate Betbaiessa ad-
vanced position ; British move north ; new
advance on Kutel-Amara begun.

May 20— ^South bank of the Tigris practically
clear of Turks as far as the Shatt-el-Hai
River.

May 27 — Russians defeat Turks and Kurds
near Serbrecht.

june i — Turks check Russian advance in
Mesoptamia and retake Mamakhtum.

June 5— Reinforced Turkish army drives Rus-
sians back twenty-five miles on the Cau-
casus front.

june 7— Russians take Turkish positions at
Khanikin.

june 12— Turks drive Russians back from
Khanikin and reoccupy Kasr-i-Shirin.

AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

May 13— General Smuts reports defeat of Ger-
mans at Irangi in German East Africa.

May 30— British occupy New Langenberg.

June 2— British drive Germans toward Pan-
gani on the coast.

AERIAL RECORD

There has been unprecedented aerial activity
on the western front. On May 18 sixty
air fights had been reported within a few
days. Georges Boillot was killed in an en-
counter with five German aeroplanes.
American aviators brought down three
German machines near Verdun. On June
1 German aviators bombarded the open
town of Bar-le-duc, killing eighteen civil-
ians.

Three German seaplanes raided the east coast
of England on May 20, dropping bombs
on Kentish towns. No casualties were re-
ported.

The Greek village of Majadagh, near the
Serbian frontier, was raided by German
aviators. Fourteen civilians were killed.

Allied airmen dropped bombs on El Arisch,
on the coast of Syria, and on El Hamma.

Austrian aviators raided Bari, on the Italian
Adriatic coast, killing eighteen civilians.

NAVAL RECORD

The greatest naval battle in history was
fought on May 31 when the German high
sea fleet emerged from Kiel into the
North Sea and engaged the main part of
the British fleet off the coast of Jutland.
The British reported the loss of three bat-
tle cruisers, Queen Mary, Indefatigable,
and Invincible ; three armored cruisers,
Defense, Warrior, and Black Prince, and
eight destroyers. The Germans reported
the loss of the battle cruiser Liitzow,
the battleship Pommern, the cruisers
Frauenlob, Elbing, and Rostock, and six
destroyers. These lists, however, are be-
lieved to be incomplete.

In the war zone the activities of German
submarines have abated somewhat. With-
in a month about fifteen neutral, four

Italian, three French, and five British

ships have been sunk.
In the Mediterranean ten belligerent vessels

were sunk by Teutonic submarines and by

mines. One Greek ship was lost.
In the Adriatic Sea the Italian transport

Princepe Umberto was torpedoed and

sunk and a large number sailors perished.

An Austrian transport was sunk in the

Harbor of Trieste.
The British cruiser Hampshire struck a mine

off the Orkney Islands on June 5 and

Lord Kitchener was lost with his entire

staff.

MISCELLANEOUS

Greece was invaded by Bulgar forces which
pushed on to Demir-Hassar after occupy-
ing the forts commanding the Struma
Valley. The country's coal supply was cut
off by England and Greek ships were held
in British ports. King Constantine pub-
lished a demobilizing decree disbanding
the twelve senior classes. The Allies no-
tified the Government that they would
take all measures necessary to enforce
treaties safeguarding Greek unity and the
Greek Constitution.

In Germany the food situation became so
serious that on May 13 Clemens Del-
brueck, Minister of the Interior, resigned,
and Tortlowitz von Batocki was appointed
food dictator by the Kaiser. Other im-
portant changes in the Cabinet followed.

The British Parliament passed a compulsory
military service bill, which was signed by
the King on May 25. Ireland was ex-
cluded from the provisions of the bill.

James Connolly and John McDermott, the
last two signers of the Irish Republic proc-
lamation, were executed in Dublin, and
John MacNeill, President of the Sinn Fein
volunteers, was found guilty of conspiracy
and sentenced to life imprisonment. Sir
Roger Casement was. put on trial for high
treason ; also Daniel Julian Bailey, an
Irishman who was captured with him.

Preliminary hearings have been held. Pre-
mier Asquith visited Ireland in a vain
attempt to bring about an agreement on
the home rule question, and the task of
pacifying the island was intrusted to
Lloyd George.

Germany has issued a general warning that
a neutral vessel may be attacked by a
German submarine if, when challenged to
halt, it fails to obey.

On May 24 Secretary Lansing sent a vigor-
ous note to France and England protesting
against interference with neutral mails,
but since that time several vessels have
been detained and the mail searched and
seized.

The Italian Cabinet resigned, June 11, after
the failure of the Chamber of Deputies to
pass a vote of confidence, following the
presentation of the budget of the Ministry
of the Interior.

MEMORIAL TO LORD KITCHENER

Historic Service in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, June 13, Attended
by King George and Queen Mary, and by Representatives of All the

Allied Powers

SIR EDWARD GREY, NOW AN EARL

tern

The British Minister of Foreign Affairs Has Been Honored With an

Earldom in Recognition of His Wartime Services

(Photo from Medem Service)

PERIOD XXIII.

Battle of the Somme — The Russian Advance — Submarine Adventures —
The Deutschland's Achievement — Death Sentence of Sir Roger Case-
ment— Developments in Africa — Sir Edward Grey's Diplomacy — Lest
We Forget — The Sin of Color-Blind Neutrality — The War and Ger-
man Christianity — Battle of Jutland — The Austrian Attack on the
Petrolite.

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

ENTERING THE THIRD YEAR OF WAR

THE second year of the European war
ends with the date of this issue of
CURRENT HISTORY, and with peace not
yet in sight. Influential German news-
papers assume to believe that the Allies'
offensive, which began July 1 at the
western front in that region of France
known as Picardy, has demonstrated the
invincibility of the German defense;
they declare that the drive has been
barren of effective results, but acknowl-
edge that the German line may very
probably yet be tested at other points
in France and Flanders; they express
confidence, however, that their lines
cannot be broken. They give full credit
to the bravery, dash, and skill of their
foes, but insist that such formidable
assaults emphasize strongly the uncon-
querable determination of their own
forces, and affirm that this must soon
convince the Allies of the futility of their
hopes. They assert that within a few
weeks an irresistible protest will arise
in France and England against the
useless sacrifice of human life, and that
the Allies will be forced to sue for peace.
On the other hand, the Allies affirm
that their offensive in the west is up to
their expectations ; that the heroic defense
of Verdun has demonstrated that the
hope of any further advances by the
Germans in France is blasted; that the
extraordinary victories and advances by
the Russians, the favorable turn of
affairs at the Italian frontier, and the
acknowledged superiority of the Entente
forces in the Balkans will bring success

I Vol. VIII., P. 783.]

at the proper moment; that the disposi-
tion of Rumania to join the Allies, soon
to crystallize into action, will cut off an
important source of food supply from
the Central Powers; that the tightening
of the blockade, the closer co-operation
and unity of action by the Allies, the
growing unrest in Germany and Austria-
Hungary, the financial straits of the
Teutons, their lack of resources and in-
ability to continue their former quick
transfers of fresh troops to critical
positions — that all these factors point
inevitably to their ultimate collapse, and
that complete victory for the Allies is
only a question of time.

With this spirit and such widely diver-
gent views in the belligerent camps, there
seems little prospect of an early peace.
On the contrary, there is every evidence
that the soldiers will pass another Winter
in the trenches unless unexpectedly there
should come a mighty clash of arms with
overwhelming defeat for one or the other.
Decisive battles, however, are not likely
in the present method of warfare;
hence the earliest prophecy of the late
Lord Kitchener, made at the beginning,
that the war would last three years,

seems likely to be fulfilled.
* * *

CABINET CHANGES

/^ ABINET changes during the month
Vj occurred in Great Britain and Italy.
The vacancy in the Secretaryship for
War caused by the death of Lord Kitch-
ener was filled by the appointment of
David Lloyd George, and the latter was
succeeded as Minister of Munitions by
Edwin Samuel Montagu, former Fi-

784

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

nancial Secretary to the Treasury. Me-
Kinnon Wood returned to his former post
as Financial Secretary.

In Italy the Salandra Cabinet fell early
in June, owing to the failure of the Gov-
ernment to take into its confidence the
Parliamentary leaders — part of a general
policy of secretiveness and reticence. A
new Cabinet was formed by Signer Bos-
selli as Prime Minister; it consists of
eighteen members, five more than the
outgoing Cabinet, and is a coalition body
containing five Liberal Conservatives,
one Catholic, four Liberal Democrats,
two Radicals, two Reformist Socialists,
and one Republican. Baron Sonnino re-
tains the post of Foreign Secretary. The
new Premier has completed his seventy-
eighth year; he has been in Parliament
since 1870; his Ministerial career began
under Crispi, when he held the portfolio
of Public Instruction from 1888 to 1891.
In his opening address he favored prose-
cution of the war with extreme vigor,
and a firm adhesion to a closer alliance
with the Entente. On July 15 Italy de-
nounced the commercial treaty with Ger-
many, for the reason, as announced, that
Germany had failed to live up to its terms
in the payment of pensions and the recog-
nition of other civil rights to Italians re-
siding in Germany. It is believed this
will soon be followed by a declaration of
war by Italy against Germany. The Ger-
man courts have recently held that Italy
and Germany are in a state of war.
* * *

SUBMARINES IN Two ROLES
•pUDYARD KIPLING of the British
•••*' Immortals and Captain Paul Koenig
of the German Merchant Marine con-
tribute two interesting chapters on the
submarine in this issue of CURRENT
HISTORY, but from widely differing
angles. Kipling sings of the submarine
as a weapon of war, while Koenig chants
of the submersible craft as an instru-
ment in peaceful commerce. This war
has produced many marvelous changes in
our methods of applying mechanical,
chemical, and physical laws, but in no
direction has the revolution been so far-
reaching and the horizon of possibilities
so widely broadened as in the use of the

submarine. As an instrument of warfare
it became the most hideous terror of all
the new implements of horror which the
struggle developed. Though it did more
than any other one cause to alienate
American sympathy from the Teutons,
yet for a while it jeopardized British
marine mastery, threatened the United
Kingdom with the possibility of starva-
tion, and produced a thrill of fear among
all who would venture on the seas. As a
vehicle of commerce, the dramatic cross-
ing of the Atlantic by the merchant sub-
marine Deutschland, which safely made
the voyage from Bremen to Baltimore in
sixteen days with a million-dollar cargo
of precious dyestuffs, is one of the memo-
rable episodes of the war, adding fresh
laurels to the daring, originality, and
productive skill of German mariners.
Just what permanent results will flow
from this successful feat cannot now be
foretold, but it will undoubtedly reopen,
if only to a limited extent, commercial
and mail intercourse between Germany
and the United States in defiance of the
most rigid blockade, and may cause a
complete revision of all international
maritime law.

* * *

WOMEN DOING MEN'S WORK
E extent to which women are pursu-
ing men's vocations from which they
were formerly excluded is visualized in
this issue of CURRENT HISTORY on two
rotogravure pages. These illustrations
relate to British conditions; the same
situation prevails in Germany, France,
and Austria-Hungary. The Secretary
of the Munitions Department of the
United Kingdom stated to Parliament
early in July that, while in 1914 184,000
women were engaged in war industries,
on July 1, 1916, the number was 666,000,
out of a total of 3,500,000 so employed.
The employment of women in war
industries, however, represents only one
branch of their activities. They have
invaded all fields, as the illustrations
show; they are street sweepers, stokers,
chimney sweeps, millers, conductors,
policemen, bricklayers, machinists, car-
penters, brewers — in fact, there is no
occupation now closed against them. It
is estimated that in Great Britain alone

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

785

3,500,000 women are now engaged in
occupations where men were formerly

exclusively employed.

* * *

GREAT BRITAIN'S BLACKLIST

THE British Government announced
July 18 that it had blacklisted eighty
business firms and individuals domiciled
in the United States with whom British
subjects are forbidden to trade. The list
was made public and includes several
banking firms, chemical houses, oil, smelt-
ing, and general exporting concerns,
chiefly corporations that are Amer-
ican branches of German institutions.
It is assumed that the blacklisting
of the firms by Great Britain will seri-
ously hamper, if not destroy, the entire
export trade of the designated institu-
tions, as neutrals would fear incurring
the ban also if they traded with them.
Our Government, it is believed, will make
a vigorous protest, and the controversy
over this interference with American
traders may have far-reaching conse-
quences.

* * *

REVOLUTION IN ARABIA

IN the beginning of the war it was
expected that the Moslem world would
rise in India, Egypt, and the Caucasus,
helping the cause of Turkey and her
allies. The opposite has now come to
pass: A revolution has broken out in
Arabia. Its leader is the Grand Sherif
of Mecca, and its aim is the independence
of Arabia from Turkey. The revolution,
primarily, is a religious affair. The
Arabs have long desired to free the holy
cities of Mecca and Medina from Turkish
rule. Mecca is now in the hands of the
rebels, Medina is besieged, the city of
Taif and the important ports of Jeddah
and Kunfuda have also been captured by
the Arabs. The roadbed of the Hijah
railway has been destroyed for a distance
of 100 miles and the telegraph lines have
been cut, so that communication between
Turkey and Arabia has been rendered
very "difficult. The rebels are well sup-
plied with ammunition, and the posses-
sion of the chief seaport assures to them
the support of Great Britain.

The interest that Moslem India is
taking in the revolution is worthy of

notice. The Indians, thousands of whom
annually visit Mecca and Medina, have
long harbored hostile feelings toward the
Turks, who exploit the pilgrims to the
utmost. In this respect the Moslem popu-
lation of Russia, which is very large,
feels much the same as the Moslem popu-
lations under British rule.
* * *

GERMANS IN IRELAND
TT is rather a strange parallel of curi-
•*• ous history that Germany should have
been involved in the recent rebellion in
Ireland, for the only other hostile land-
ing by way of Ireland known to modern
history was made by Germans in 1487,
when Lambert Simnel landed there with a
force of 2,000 Germans. The Earl of
Kildare crowned him King at Dublin that
year, and at the head of his German
troops he crossed over to England, but
met defeat at Stoke.

A subsequent uprising in Ireland by
Perkin Warbeck was also supported by
the Earl of Kildare, but the Government
of that day believed in conciliation and
forgiveness to the point of stupidity. The
historian Froude says, in recounting the
story :

The Irish rebels with their ever-ready wit
and fluent words, their show of bluntness and
pretense of simplicity, disarmed anger and
dispersed calumny, and they returned on all
such occasions more trusted than ever, to
laugh at the folly which they had duped.

" All Ireland cannot govern this Earl," said
a member of the King's Council.

" Then let this Earl govern all Ireland,"
replied the King.

He was sent over, "k convicted traitor— he
returned a Knight of the Garter, Lord Dep-
uty, and the representative of the Crown.
Rebellion was a successful policy, and a les-
son which corresponded so closely to the Irish
temper was not forgotten.

" What, thou fool," said Sir Gerald Shane-
son to a younger son of this nobleman thirty
years later when he found him slow to join
the rebellion against Henry VIII. " What,
thou fool, thou shalt be the more esteemed
for it. For what hadst thou if thy father
had not done so? What was he until he
crowned a King here, took Garth, the King's
captain, prisoner, hanged his son, resisted
Poynings and all Deputies ; killed them of
Dublin upon Oxmantown Green ; would suf-
fer no man to rule here for the King but
himself ! Then the King regarded him, and
made him Deputy, and married thy mother
to him, or else thou shouldst never have had

786

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

a foot of land, where now thou mayest dis-
pend four hundred marks by the year."

The London Post, in censuring the
present Government for its blindness,
says that when the rebels were caught
in a traitorous correspondence with
Charles V., the Emperor of Germany,
they were pardoned. Not until the great
rebellion of 1532-34 had reduced Ireland
to ruin did Henry awake to the necessity
of strength, and by striking terror into
the hearts of evildoers bring the rebel-
lion to a close. It cites this historic epi-
sode to support the contention that the
present troubles in Ireland are due to a
complacent and short-visioned Govern-
ment which permitted matters to drift
without any show of authority. The Post
concludes that the only way there can
be a settlement of the Irish question is
by a strong administration with no short
cuts or compromises.

A definite settlement has now been
reached, as is noted elsewhere in these
pages, and the Irish question will remain
quiescent at least until one year after
the war.

* * *

To PROMOTE THE BIRTH RATE
FT1HE French Chambers have before
-L them a bill to establish after Jan. 1,
1917, a system of birth bounties. It
proposes that the State shall give to
every mother $100 for each of her first
two living children, $200 for the third
baby, $400 for the fourth, and $200 for
each baby thereafter, the bounty to be
the exclusive property of the mother,
regardless of whether or not the children
are born in wedlock. The law also pro-
vides that $400 be given to the father if
he presents at the Mayor's office " at
least four of his living children whom he
has supported continuously since their
birth." It is proposed that the funds to
pay these bounties shall be derived from
a supertax assessed against every person
of either sex who had for any reason
remained childless or had raised only one
child.

* * *

HPHE passing of the Mexican crisis is
•*• fully covered elsewhere in this issue.
It is now reported that our Government
will not only agree to a joint patrol of

the border on conditions to be arranged
by a joint commission of Mexicans and
Americans, but will also, while not
formally indorsing, at least "benevo-
lently approve," a loan of $100,000,000,
or even double that sum, to enable the
Carranza Government to establish itself
and promote stable industrial recovery in
that sorely stricken land.

* * *

1T7HILE our State Department has
V » been considering financial aid to
Mexico preliminary measures have been
taken for American participation in a
large loan to China. It will be remem-
bered that American bankers withdrew
in 1913 from the so-called five- power
loan to China in deference to the wishes
of President Wilson, but it is understood
the Administration is in favor of our
participation in the proposed new loan.
It is not understood that the loan will
involve our Government in partnership
in any concession or form of collateral;
it will be entirely an unofficial " straight
loan." The introduction of a large block
of American capital in China would have
an important bearing on our commercial
relations and might prove an effective
counterstroke to the new Russo-Japanese
treaty.

* * *

IN addition to the Mexican and Chinese
loans, a new loan to France of
$100,000,000 will at once be floated by a
private American syndicate to be known
as the American Foreign Securities
Company, embracing all leading New
York financial institutions with a few
exceptions. The French Government will
maintain a collateral deposit to secure
the loan at a market value of $120,-
000,000. With the exception of the
Anglo-French loan in 1915, this is the
largest private loan to a foreign Govern-
ment ever made in the United States.

* * *

rjlHE Board of Trade Labour Gazette
-*• for June, a British publication, fixes
the total increase in retail food prices
in the United Kingdom since the begin-
ning of the war at 59 per cent. Com-
parisons of meat prices between June,
1916, and July, 1914, show that the better

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

787

cuts are 50 to 60 per cent, dearer, the
cheaper cuts 100 per cent.; bacon, 40 per
cent., and fish, 86 per cent.; potatoes,
flour, bread, cheese, and tea increased
from 50 to 60 per cent. The average in-
crease in cost of living in the two years,
taking food, rent, fuel, clothing, light,
&c., but disregarding increased taxation,
is 40 per cent. The total rise in food
prices at Berlin in the two years is put
by British authorities at 119.8 per cent.,
and in Vienna at 121.5 per cent.

* * *

73 EMOTE British colonies and protec-
•" torates have made the following di-
rect contributions in money toward the
cost of the war : Ceylon, $5,000,000 in ten
yearly installments; Mauritius, two con-
tributions of $50,000 each; Bermuda,
$18,000 annually for fifteen years; Ja-
maica, $300,000 a year for forty years —
to begin at the end of the war; Bahamas,
$50,000; Dominica, $50,000; Turks and
Caicos Islands, $5,000; Cayman Islands,
$525; Nigeria, the charges for interest
and a sinking fund of 1 per cent, on a
share of the imperial war debt amount-
ing to $30,000,000; Gold Coast, $400,000
in eight annual installments; Zanzibar,
$50,000.

* * *

PORTSMOUTH, a city of less than
f 200,000 inhabitants, lost 4,000 men
in the Jutland naval battle; 1,500 homes
are left fatherless. According to Ameri-
can averages there were 40,000 men over
twenty-one years of age in Portsmouth,
so that one-tenth of the male adult popu-
lation of that one town perished in the
single naval battle.

* * *

NOTE.— CURRENT HISTORY is in receipt of a
letter from Arthur L. Bouvier of New Bed-
ford, Mass., disclaiming the credit of having
collaborated with Romeo Houle in preparing
the remarkable story in English of Mr.
Houle's experiences in the trenches in France
with a Canadian regiment, /printed in our
July issue. He writes thaT^he English ver-
sion of Mr. Houle's narrative was written
entirely by David MacGregor Cheney of The
New Bedford Standard. A French version
was written by Mr. Bouvier in collaboration
with Mr. Cheney, whence the confusion arose
in the mind of the representative of CURRENT
HISTORY at New Bedford, who, instructed
originally to investigate the narrative of Mr.
Houle, fully authenticated it.

PREMIER ASQUITH announced to the
•*• Commons on July 19 that a new vote
of credit of $1,500,000,000 would be asked
for before the end of the month. It is
the eleventh since the outbreak of the
war, and brings up the total to $13,410,-
000,000.

* * *

HE question is frequently asked why
the Germans are slaughtering hun-
dreds of thousands of the flower of their
army at Verdun to capture a fortress
which already has been practically de-
stroyed and will prove of no strategic
value if occupied. This inquiry is a/r
swered in many ways, but the following
explanation by a war correspondent of
The London Morning Post seems the
most plausible^

Some say it would mean nothing but a
ruined town, of no more significance than
any other locality on the 400 miles of front;
but they have not attempted to explain why,
on that hypothesis, the French should fight
so stubbornly to preserve, and the Germans
to possess, what is of no value. The fact
that it cost so many thousand lives would
of itself give it a certain value from the
point of view of morale, if for no other rea-
son. Among the people of Germany, and, no
doubt, among neutrals, its capture would
probably create a deep impression. To the
Germans it would mean success, purchased
at a price best known to themselves. Sucli
abstractions mean something in war, in
which Napoleon is said to have observed " Le
moral est pour les trois quarts." As for
more material military results the Germans
may think that the capture of Verdun would
be a stepping-stone to further successes.
They may think that it would lead— as has
been suggested in the German press— to
the acquisition of the whole range of for-
tified heights between Verdun and Toul.
That seems to be the extreme view of the
German optimists; and it is too extravagant
to need consideration. The maximum effect
v/ould probably be the withdrawal of our
allies from the eastern heights of the Meuse
as far south as St. Mihiel, where the Ger-
man position already abuts on the river, and
the straightening of their front along a line
to some suitable point in the Argonne. But
this would involve more fighting and greater
sacrifices than even Verdun has seen as yet,
and, at the current rate of progress, would
be the work of many months, during which
it is not to be supposed that events will
stand still in other quarters. What is, per-
haps, most credible is that the Germans hope
to crush the spirit of the French Nation, and
to make the Allies recognize that the Germans
are really victorious, and that it would be
futile to prolong the struggle.

Interpretations of World Events

Tactics of the British Drive
A FRENCH officer thus explains the
*^- tactics of the big drive on the
Somme: The tactical method of the
Franco-British offensive, he says, con-
sists of three echelons, or steps. The
first, to the north, is held by the English
from the Ancre to La Boisselle. The
centre one, in front of the northern
echelon, runs from the wood of Trones,
near Longueval, through Hardecourt to
the Somme River. The third, or right
echelon, occupies the territory to the
south of the Somme, passing through
Biaches and Barleux. These echelons all
face east. The lines between the echelons
face north, thus giving the battle front
the formation of a series of angles. This
position of the Allies in a sharp salient
is of the utmost value for an offensive,
because the artillery of each advanced
echelon enfilades the flank of the enemy's
line, which faces the next echelon to
the rear. Thus the Germans are con-
trolled in a series of right angles wherein
they receive the fire of the Allies from
two sides. The method of advance by
echelon has been remarkable. On the
nights of July 4 and 5 the echelon on
the right, south of the Somme, reached
a point northwest of Barleux, where it
spent four days fortifying itself. Mean-
while the other echelon on the left ad-
vanced. On July 7 the British echelon
on the north attacked the front at Thiep-
val and La Boisselle. On July 8 the cen-
tre echelon advanced, reaching the lines
of the Trones Wood and Hardecourt. On
July 9 the echelon to the south started an
action, attacking on a three-mile front,
penetrating the front for one kilometer,
and reached Biaches, and on July 10 to
47-Meter Hill, overlooking Peronne.

Echelon means the rung of a ladder
or the step of a stair, and a staircase
looked at edgewise, with first the low-
est step, then the second, then the third
pushed forward, gives a picture of the
tactics. The enemy contained in each
angle can be shot from two directions,
from the rise and from the tread of
each step. But there is another sense
in which the " big push " is a step-by-

step arrangement. To smash up the
modern reinforced concrete trench and
its barbed wire margin requires four or
five days' pounding with the heaviest
guns. When the pounding is done the
infantry rushes forward and seizes the
trench, or perhaps a series of two or
three trenches. Behind lie further
trenches, still to be smashed. To bring
forward the heavy guns required for this
sort of work, and which are mounted in
weighty carriages run on rails, requires,
first, the building of the rails on ground
recently dislocated by artificial volcanic
eruptions. This takes time. Then comes
a fresh pounding of several days, fol-
lowed by a fresh infantry rush, and so
on, a step at a time.

The question now arises: Can the Al-
lies step forward faster than their
enemies can build new trenches behind
the old ones? If so, they will presently
break out into comparatively open coun-
try. If not, the step-by-step process will
of necessity go on at the same rate, right
across occupied France and Belgium;
perhaps further. Apparently the Allies
believe they can go faster, and expect
shortly to find open water — or open land
— before them, with only hastily extem-
porized earthworks which the new how-
itzers should be able to eat up rapidly.

With General Brusiloff's Forces
p ENERAL BRUSILOFF'S cyclonic ad-
^T vance is made even more note-
worthy as a military achievement by the
detailed reports which the mails are now
bringing to supplement the meagre
cables from the Russian front. Stan-
ley Washburn, correspondent for The
London Times, declares that at many
points the Russians have been fighting
against numerical odds, sometimes of
three to one, and that they have been
exceedingly sparing of ammunition, very
rarely indulging in hurricane fire, but
carrying positions by cold steel, with the
long 30-inch bayonet, which is always
fixed and never taken off the rifle's
muzzle. Mr. Washburn describes an ad-
vanced position on the Styr, near Kovel,
where the Russian troops had earlier

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

789

forced a crossing of the river, facing
a terrific fire and turning the enemy
out of his positions at the point of the
bayonet. In hurriedly dug positions of-
fering the most meagre kind of shelter
the Russians drove back four consecu-
tive Austrian counterattacks. Each left
the field thickly strewn with Austrian
dead, besides hundreds of their wounded,
who had been left where they fell.
Though familiar with Russian cour-
age and tenacity, he says he found it
difficult to realize that human beings
had been able to carry the positions
which the Russians had carried; the
Austrian first line representing the very
latest practice in field works, and often
comparing favorably with the German
lines in France, is protected by half a
dozen barriers of barbed wire, with
strong redoubts and machine gun posi-
tions, and with underground shelters
often twenty feet deep, while the reserve
positions extend in many places from
half a mile to a mile in series after
series behind the first line, with elaborate
communication trenches; shelters, and
bomb-proofs. Mr. Washburn also combats
the idea that the Austrian defense was
weak. At one point he was shown a short
sector where no less than 4,000 Austrian
dead had been buried, proving a stub-
born and courageous resistance. He
found very few Slavs, such as Czechs,
Poles, or Slovaks, among the Austrian
prisoners. These, because of their sym-
pathy for their brother Slavs, the Rus-
sians, a sympathy in past expressed by
wholesale surrenders, are sent prefer-
ably to the Italian front, for there is no
love lost between the Slavs and the
Italians, both of whom claim and covet
the east shore of the Adriatic and the
Isonzo Valley.

President Poincare and the Terms of
France

SPEAKING on the French National
Festival, July 14, the anniversary of
the taking of the Bastille in 1789, Ray-
mond Poincare restated the terms which
France demands as the consummation of
the war: " We are fighting," he said,
" not for honor alone, but for honor and
life. We are seeking entire restitution

of our invaded provinces and of those —
Alsace and Lorraine — seized forty-six
years ago; for reparation for the viola-
tion of rights at the expense of France
or of her allies, and for the guarantees
necessary for a definitive safeguard of
our national independence." Assuming
that France and her allies gain a victory
as sweeping as the President of the
French Republic desires, and as England
and Russia, Belgium and Serbia, desire,
it is evident that of these requirements
some will be very much easier to secure
than others. To begin with, the evacua-
tion of the occupied part of Northern
France and Belgium; even Chancellor
von Bethmann Hollweg seems to concede
that, though there is danger that his
spirit of conciliation may bring his down-
fall. Next, Alsace and Lorraine could be
definitely handed over to France by a
stroke of the pen, as they were taken
from her by a stroke of the pen, though
Germany would doubtless make " men-
tal reservations " as to taking them back
again. Even the immense indemnity
which, on the principle of damages in a
civil suit, the Allies might justly claim
from a conquered Germany, could in
time be collected, as the indemnity from
the Chinese Empire was collected, by
taking possession of all the custom
houses of the Central Empires and col-
lecting the import and export duties for
the Allies' account. But the defense for
the future is more difficult, even by a
broad system of limitation of armaments.
Napoleon attempted exactly that with
Prussia, limiting her to an army of so
many thousands; but Stein circumvented
him by renewing these thousands every
few months and thus training an im-
mense army. And the same thing could
be done again in half a dozen different
ways.

A Separate Peace for Austria

rpHERE are persistent rumors that
•*- Austria is suing for a separate
peace; even that a council of Russian
Ministers is 'already considering the
terms. What could Austria gain by
a separate peace at this stage of the
war? Gain is, perhaps, not quite the
word; but Austria might hope to save

790

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

much, which may otherwise go by the
board. It is true that her armies are
smashed, that she has no effective re-
serves, that her Generals are discredited
and superseded in their own commands
by Germans — a very galling punish-
ment to men as proud as the aristocracy
of the Dual Monarchy — and that she is
hopelessly .bankrupt.

But there are many things which she
still possesses, and dreads to lose. No
doubt Russia, if conceding a separate
peace now, would stipulate for the com-
plete rehabilitation of Montenegro and
Serbia, and, very likely, for the compen-
sation of Serbia by the cession to her
of Bosnia-Herzegovina; no doubt she
would ask for Bukowina and Galicia,
both largely Slavonic in blood, though
Bukovina is claimed by Rumania, and
might have gone to her, had she joined
the Entente Powers. But Austria dreads
to lose m ih more, if the war is pushed
to the bitt3_ end. To say nothing 01
Italia Irrede:c';a, which King Victor
Emmanuel wiii look after, it is well
known that Rui^ia is in favor of
autonomy for the Austrian Poles of
Northern Galicia; for autonomy, prob-
ably independence, for the Slavs of
Bohemia and Moravia; and also for
the Slavs of Hungary, the oppres-
sion of whom is a blot on the Magyar
scutcheon; with autonomy, or perhaps
even union with their Serbian kin, for
the Southern Slavs of Croatia, Carinthia,
and Carniola. But this would mean the
complete dismemberment of the Austrian
Empire, and probably the independence
of Hungary. To these final and ruinous
losses, Franz Josef may well prefer the
animosity of Germany, should he desert
her; for, deprived of Austrian support,
and hemmed in by the Entente Powers,
Germany would be in no position to in-
flict condign punishment on her former
ally, who would, on our supposition, have
the support of the Entente Powers.

Dangerous as the defection of Austria
would be to Germany, to Bulgaria it
would be fatal, and, in all probability, to
Turkey also, who might in turn sue for
peace. But, after all, it is not at all cer-
tain that Russia would treat with Aus-
tria on any terms. M. Sazonoff tells us

she has repeatedly refused a separate
peace to Turkey, and the principle is the
same. It may well be that, in the opin-
ion of the Entente leaders, Austria will
be more dangerous to Germany and more
costly, if she remains in the fray, be-
cause this wiH stretch the German armies
out in a longer, thinner line; and we may
take it as axiomatic that Russia will do
nothing, in this direction or any other,
that does not meet .with the full approval
of her western allies.

In Hungary also there is a strong
movement for peace, under the leadership
of Count Karolyi, a proof of the further
disintegration of the Dual Monarchy.

The New Viceroy of Canada
'""THE Duke of Devonshire, who suc-
•*• ceeds his Royal Highness the Duke
of Connaught as Governor General and
Commander in Chief of the Dominion of
Canada, is the nephew of the Duke of
Devonshire who, as Marquis of Harting-
ton, was one of the pillars of Gladstonian
Cabinets until the Home Rule bill of 1886
made a schism between the erstwhile
friends and drove the Marquis, with Jo-
seph Chamberlain, to form the strong
minority party of Liberal Unionists. The
new Viceroy of Canada is likewise a
nephew of the Lord Frederick Cavendish
who was assassinated in Phoenix Park,
near Dublin, on May 6, 1882, the day on
which was born the present Crown
Prince of Germany and Prussia. The
new Viceroy was born forty-eight years
ago, was educated at Eton and Cam-
bridge, and saw something of English
Parliamentary life as Member for West
Derbyshire, in which lie the great estates
of Chatsworth, one of the largest posses-
sions of the Devonshire family, being
elected as a Liberal Unionist when he
was 23. A year later he married Lady
Evelyn Fitzmaurice, a daughter of the
Marquis of Lansdowne, who, in the full-
ness of time, presented him with two
sons and five daughters.

The Duke of Devonshire comes to Can-
ada at an interesting time when the
great war and the magnificent part
played in it by the great volunteer army
of Canada have drawn still closer the
bonds uniting the Dominion to the heart

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

791

of the Empire, and without doubt his
social standing and political experience
will excellently fit him to head the semi-
royal Court at Ottawa, which, through
moral and social forces, so strongly in-
fluences the life of the great self-govern-
ing country, which the Dominion of Can-
ada in reality is. It is almost impos-
sible to overrate the part played by the
Viceroys of the " dominions beyond the
sea " in binding together the widely sepa-
rated parts of the British Empire, in
unifying the feeling and thought which
make for imperial unity, and therefore
for potent influence in the councils of the
world.

The Ulster Settlement

IN Ireland, more than in other lands,
the sources of present discontents
have their roots far back in the past.
Thus the plea for the exclusion of six
counties of Ulster from the Asquith-
Lloyd George Home Rule plan rests on
events dating back to " the Flight of the
Earls " in 1608. Plantations of the south
and west of Ireland had been tried, rather
disastrously, under Edward VI. and
Queen Mary. Where they failed the
Stuart Kings succeeded. In 1608 O'Neill,
Earl of Tyrone, and O'Donnell, Earl of
Tyrconnell, fearing an attack by James
I., fled from Ireland to the Continerit.
James seized their lands, the greater
part of six Ulster counties, and estab-
lished on them three classes of colonists
from Britain : First, " undertakers," who
were either English or Scotch, received
holdings of 2,000 acres each, on which
they were to establish English or Scotch
tenants; second, " servitors," who were
Protestant Irish, received 1,500 acres
each, and might take Scotch, English, or
Irish Protestant tenants; third, "old na-
tives," received 1,000 acres each, and
subdivided the land among Catholic ten-
ants, who were permitted to evade the
Act of Supremacy, which recognized the
King, in place of the Pope, as head of
the Church. Further, thousands of acres
of the confiscated estates of the O'Neills
and O'Donnells were granted to Protest-
ant churches and educational institutions,
Trinity College, Dublin, receiving some
10,000 acres. Companies of London mer-

chants also received large g'rants and
changed the name of Derry, " the place
of oaks," to Londonderry. This system
produced a piebald northern province, the
, Scotch and English tenants, who were
scattered among Irish neighbors, holding
their land on the understanding that they
should receive direct support from their
British kin and the British Crown.

This is the understanding which they
now plead, in asking to be excluded from
Home Rule, and Lloyd George has recog-
nized the validity of their plea, in exclud-
ing Antrim, Down, Armagh, London-
derry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, the six
" planted " counties, from the jurisdic-
tion of the new Dublin Parliament. These
counties, and the Boroughs of Belfast
and Londonderry, will continue to send
members of Parliament to Westminster,
as they have done since Jan. 1, 1801,
when the Act of Legislative Union
formed "the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland."

A real difficulty in the present settle-
ment is the " right of the minority " of
Protestant and Unionist Irishmen in the
south and west of Ireland, who are
equally unwilling to come under the juris-
diction of the Irish Parliament, which
they fear will be controlled by Ultra-
montane influences — a new kind of for-
eign rule. But there is another minority
problem; that of the Nationalists in the
six excluded counties of Ulster. Meeting
recently at Belfast, and under consider-
able pressure from Redmond and Devlin,
their representatives have, by a large
majority, acquiesced in the exclusion of
the six Ulster counties, and therefore of
the Nationalists in them, from Home
Rule. It is notable that the Roman Cath-
olic priests were the strongest element
against this acquiescence. The settle-*
ment, as proposed by Lloyd George, will
probably be officially sanctioned within
the coming month, and will remain in
force at least until one year after the
war.

Russo-Japanese Alliance
fTlHE Russian and Japanese Foreign
-*- Offices on July 7 simultaneously an-
nounced that a new Russo-Japanese con-
vention had been signed at Petrograd

792

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

July 3, 1916, with the following provi-
sions:

First— Japan will not participate in any
political arrangement or combination against
Russia which assumes the same obligations.

Second— In case one country's Far Eastern
territorial rights and special interests recog-
nized by the other are menaced, both Japan
and Russia will confer on methods to be
taken with a view to mutual support and co-
operation in order to protect and defend
these rights and interests.

The text of the convention is not yet
published on account of the delay of
Petrograd's answer to Japan's question
whether Russia was willing to make
the entire convention public. Premier
Okuma elaborated the subject in the fol-
lowing words to a correspondent of
THE NEW YORK TIMES:

The purposes of the Russo-Japanese con-
vention are an extension of the Anglo-Jap-
anese alliance. It aims to preserve Far
Eastern peace. Japan cannot bear China's
long political disturbances, upsetting Jap-
arese commercial interests in China, whose
commercial development brings the most
benefit to Japan on account of geographical
contiguity.

Japan welcomes American money and in-
vestments and will steadfastly maintain the
open-door policy in China. There is a full
understanding with Great Britain, who wel-
comes the new convention indorsing- the
Anglo-Japanese alliance.

The reason Japan does not want to take
the full burden of Far Eastern peace alone
is that Japan is afraid of being misunder-
stood by other powers, especially China.
Japan welcomes any power's activity to
maintain Far Eastern peace and commercial
development.

When the Allies advised Yuan to postpone
the monarchy Japan twice invited American
participation. President Wilson indorsed the
Allies' advice in principle, but refused par-
ticipation, saying America did not want to
interfere in Chinese internal affairs.

Japan has no ambition for Chinese terri-
tory. The territorial ambition of the old-
timers is a dream. Japan annexed Korea
and leased the Manchurian Railway zones,
as Japan's existence was menaced.

The world does not think President Wil-
son's Mexican policy is an indication of ter-
ritorial ambition, notwithstanding that
America took Mexican territory years ago.
I am sure the powers understand Japan's
attitude toward China, seeing that Japan
welcomes any power's activity for Chinese
peace. Japan is unable to steal China's
territory when the former is openly co-op-
erating with other powers.

Tell Americans we heartily welcome their
commercial and industrial activity in China.
America has enormous capital, which if com-

mercially and industrially invested in China
will further Japan's trade with China.

The Japanese Foreign Office categori-
cally denied the rumor that there are any
- secret clauses in the treaty. It is re-
garded as a result of the war and was
due to the invaluable aid rendered Russia
by Japan in procuring arms and muni-
tions for the last offensive.

The United States Government has
made no official declaration respecting
the treaty, but is keeping as fully in-
formed as possible. The general feeling
in the United States, as expressed by
leading newspapers, while not at all
hostile to the treaty, is one of alertness
and keen interest, with a firmer resolu-
tion that this country should be pre-
pared on land and sea to meet any
reasonable emergency.

Declaration of London Abandoned
HP HE British and French Governments
•*• on July 8 announced their with-
drawal of the Declaration of London.
The new order declares it to be the in-
tention of Great Britain and her allies
to exercise their belligerent rights at sea
in strict accordance with the law of na-
tions. On account of the changed condi-
tions of commerce and the diversity of
practice, doubts might arise in certain
matters as to the rules which the Allies
might regard as in conformity with the
law of nations, and it is ordered that the
following provisions be observed:

First— The hostile destination required for
the condemnation of contraband articles shall
be presumed to exist until the contrary is
shown if the goods are consigned to or for
an enemy authority or agent of an enemy
State, or to or for a person in the territory
belonging to or occupied by the enemy, or to
or for a person who during the present
hostilities has forwarded contraband goods
to an enemy authority or agent of an enemy
State, or to or for a person in terri-
tory belonging to or occupied by the enemy,
or if the goods are consigned " to order," or
if the ship's papers do not show who is the
real consignee of the goods.

Second— The principle of continuous voyage
or ultimate destination shall be applicable
both in cases of contraband and blockade.

Third— A neutral vessel carrying contraband
with papers indicating a neutral destination
which, notwithstanding the destination shown
on the papers, proceeds to an enemy port,
shall be liable to capture and condemnation

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

793

if she is encountered before the end of her
next voyage.

Fourth— A vessel carrying contraband shall
be liable to capture and condemnation if the
contraband, reckoned either by value, weight,
volume or freight, forms more than half the
carsro.

It is further ordered that nothing in
the new regulations shall be deemed to
affect the Order in Council of March 11,
1915, for further restricting the com-
merce of the enemy, or any proclama-
tions declaring articles to be contraband
of war during the present hostilities ; nor
shall the new regulations affect the valid-
ity of anything done under the Orders in
Council now withdrawn. Any cause or
proceeding commenced in prize court
before the making of the new order may,
if the court thinks it just, be heard and
decided under the orders withdrawn, so
far as they were ,in force when such
cause or proceeding was begun or would
have been applicable in such cause or
proceeding if the new order had not been
made.

The new order is cited as " Maritime
Rights Order in Council, 1916."

The Declaration of London was the
name given to a code drawn up in 1909
by the powers for the use of an Inter-
national Prize Court at The Hague. The
Hague Conference of 1907 had deter-
Tiined on an international prize court,
but did not settle the code of maritime
law to be administered in it. Great
Britain subsequently invited the powers
to a conference to settle the law to be
administered and a code was drawn up.

In England great objections were
taken to the declaration as tending to de-
stroy the maritime power of Great Brit-
ain, with the. result that the Naval Prize
bill, which authorized the declaration
and the establishment of an interna-
tional court, so far as Great Britain was
concerned, and had been passed by the
House of Commons, was thrown out by
the House of Lords.

At the opening of the war the Gov-
ernment adopted the rules of the declara-
tion, subject to certain conditions and
modifications and additions, as a work-
ing code of prize law. The declaration

was never ratified by the United States.
The effect of the change in British policy
will be to revive the general application
of international law as interpreted prior
to 1909.

Attacks on the German Chancellor

DR. VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG,
Imperial Chancellor of Germany,
finds himself in a position of great and
daily increasing difficulty. The other day
he was compelled to answer in the Reichs-
tag the virulent anonymous attack of a
pamphleteer who pays England the com-
pliment of signing himself " A Second
Junius." One passage of this pamphlet,
which represents the view of the Con-
servative Junker party, and a part of the
element of big business, is especially in-
teresting to ourselves. Speaking of the
suppression of Grand Admiral von Tir-
pitz, the German Junius says:

The results which were bound to be
brought about by the American policy of
Bethmann Hollweg have not failed to make
their appearance. President Wilson, far
from being1 deterred by the weak policy of
Germany in pursuing his antagonistic course,
was encouraged to push his triumphs even
further at the expense of an easily cowed
nation. He proved the fallacy of Helfferich's
assumptions, and, not content with that, in-
sisted upon the recall of the Germany Military
and Naval Attaches, who had incurred his
disfavor. Never before the time of the Chan-
cellorship of Bethmann Hollweg has the
honor of the empire been so shamefully ig-
nored as in these various negotiations with
America, in which the Chancellor surrendered
the oath of service of German officers with
the same lightness with which he surren-
dered the honor of the empire. These feel-
ings are intensified when one remembers
that the Austrian Empire, which also yield-
ed to the wishes of America and recalled
the Austrian Ambassador, did so in such a
way, as later in the case of the Ancona, that
the dignity and honor of the monarchy did
not suffer. Whoever understands how to
read the notes will hardly doubt that the
reply of Burian to America was a slap in the
face, and not alone to the statesmen in
Washington.

The German peace discussion presup-
poses that it will rest with Germany to
dictate terms, while the Allies, on the
other hand, now discourage all peace talk
and give the impression that they will
state their terms when Germany admits
she is vanquished.

THE BRITISH OFFENSIVE

By Philip Gibbs

British War Correspondent
[See Map of Battle Front on Page 808]

Philip Gibbs's descriptions of the great British offensive in Picardy will rank with the
most brilliant literary products of the whole war. We present here a series of extracts from
his articles covering the first two weeks' fighting, chronologically arranged so as to give a
moving picture of the whole drive, by night and by day, each flash of the film hot with
the excitement of the events that inspired it.

SATURDAY, JULY 1

THE great attack which was
launched today against the Ger-
man lines on a twenty-mile front
has begun satisfactorily. The
British troops, fighting with splendid
valor, have swept across the German
front trenches along the great part of
the line of attack, and have captured
villages and strongholds which the Ger-
mans have long held. They are fighting
their way forward, not easily but dog-
gedly.

The guns spoke one morning last week
with louder voice than yet had been
heard upon the front, and as they
crashed out all knew it was the signal
for the new attack. Their fire increased
in intensity, covering raids at many
points of the line, until at last all things
were ready for the biggest raid.

The scene of the battlefields at night
was of terrible beauty. I motored out
from a town behind the lines where
through their darkened windows the
French citizens watched the illumination
of the sky, throbbing and flashing to
distant shellfire. * * * On this night
of bombardment I stood with a few
officers in the centre of a crescent sweep-
ing round from Auchonvilliers, Thiepval,
La Boisselle, and Fricourt to Bray on the
Somme at the southern end of the curve.
Here in two beet-root fields on high
ground we stood watching one of the
greatest artillery battles in which British
gunners had been engaged.

The night sky was very calm and moist
with low-lying clouds not stirred by the
wind. It was rent with incessant flashes
of light as shells of every calibre burst
and scattered. Out of the black ridges

and woods in front of us came the explo-
sions of white flare as if the earth had
opened and let loose its inner heat. They
came up with the burst of an intense
brilliance which spread along 100 yards
of ground and then vanished abruptly
behind the black curtain of night. It
was the work of the high explosives and
heavy trench mortars falling in the Ger-
man lines over Thiepval and La Boisselle.
There were rapid flashes of bursting
shrapnel shells, and these points of flame
stabbed the sky along the whole battle
front.

From the German lines rockets were
rising continually. They rose high and
their star-shell remained suspended for
half a minute with intense brightness.
While the light lasted it cut out the black
outline of trees and broken roofs and re-
vealed heavy white smoke clouds rolling
over the German positions.

The full power of the British artillery
was let loose at about 6 o'clock this
morning. Nothing like it has ever been
seen or heard upon the front before, and
all preliminary bombardment, great as it
was, seemed insignificant to this. I do
not know how many batteries are along
this battle line or upon the section of the
line which I could see, but the guns
seemed crowded in vast numbers of every
calibre, and the concentration of their
fire was terrific in its intensity.

For a time I could see nothing through
the low-lying mist and the heavy smoke
clouds which mingled with the mist, and
I stood like a blind man, only listening.
It was a wonderful thing which came to
my ears. Shells were rushing through
the air as though all the trains in the
world were driving at express speed

THE BRITISH OFFENSIVE

795

through endless tunnels in which they
met each other with frightful collisions.
The Germans were being blasted by a
hurricane of fire.

At a minute after 7:30 o'clock there
came through the rolling smoke clouds a
rushing sound. It was the noise of rifle
fire and machine guns. The men were
out of their trenches and the attack had
begun. The Germans were barraging
the lines. The country chosen for the
main attack today stretches from the
Somme for some twenty miles north-
ward.

The French were to operate on the
immediate right. It is a very differ-
ent country from Flanders with its
swamps and flats, and from the Loos
battlefields with their dreary plain pim-
pled by slag heaps. It is a sweet and
pleasant country with wooded hills and
little valleys along the river beds of the
Ancre and Somme and fertile meadow-
lands, and stretches of woodland, where
the soldiers and guns may get good
cover.

It was difficult ground in front of us.
The Germans were strong in their de-
fenses. In the clumps of woodland be-
side the ruined villages they hid many
machine guns and trench mortars, and
each ruined house in each village was
part of a fortified stronghold, difficult
to capture by direct assault. It was
here, however, and with good hopes of
success, that the Allies attacked today,
working westward across the Ancre and
northward up from the Somme.

When the British left their assembly
trenches and swept forward, cheering,
they encountered no great resistance
from the German soldiers who had been
in hiding in their dugouts under the
storm of shells. Many of these dugouts
were blown in and filled with dead, but
out of others, which had not been flung
to pieces by high explosives, crept dazed
and deafened men, who held their hands
up and bowed their heads. Some of
them in one part of the line came out of
their shelters as soon as the guns lifted
and met the British soldiers half way
with signs of surrender. They were col-
lected and. sent back under guard, while
the attacking columns passed on to the

second and third lines in the network of
trenches.

TUESDAY, JULY 4
It is beyond the power of words to give
a picture of the German trenches over
the battlefield of Montauban, where the
British now hold a line through the
wood beyond. Before Saturday last it
was a wide, far-reaching network of
trenches, with many communication
ways and strong traverses and redoubts.
No mass of infantry, however great,
would have dared to assault such posi-
tion with bombs and rifles. It was a
great underground fortress which any
body of men could have held against any
others for all time apart from thfe de-
structive power of the heavy artillery.

But now it was the most frightful con-
vulsion of the earth that the eyes of man
could see. The bombardment of the
British guns tossed all these earthworks
into vast rubbish heaps and made this
ground a vast series of shell craters so
deep and so broad that it is like a field
of extinct volcanoes. The ground rose
and fell in enormous waves of brown
earth, so that standing above one crater
I saw before me these solid billows with
thirty feet of slopes stretching away like
a sea frozen after a great storm.

The British must have hurled hundreds
if not thousands of shells from their
heaviest howitzers and' long-range guns
into this stretch of fields. Even many
of the dugouts going thirty feet below
the earth and strongly timbered and
cemented had been choked with the
masses of earth so that many dead bodies
must lie buried there. But some had
been left in spite of the upheaval of the
earth around them, and, into some of
these, I crept down, impelled by the
strong, grim spell of those little dark
rooms below where German soldiers lived
only a few days ago.

The little square rooms were fitted up
with relics of German officers and men.
Tables were strewn with papers. On
wooden bedsteads lay blue-gray over-
coats. Wine bottles, photograph albums,
furry haversacks, boots, belts, and kits
of every kind all had been tumbled to-
gether by the British soldiers who had
come here after the first rush to the

700 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

German trenches and searched for men
in hiding. In one of the dugouts I stum-
bled against something and fumbled for
my matches. When I struck a light I
saw in a corner of the room a German
who lay curled up with his head on his
arms as though asleep. I did not stay
to look at his face, but went up quickly,
and yet I went down the others and
lingered in one where no corpse lay,
because of the tragic spirit that dwelt
there and put its spell on me.

SATURDAY, JULY 8

After the first four days of battle there
was something like a lull for twenty-four
hours— a lull filled with the great noise
of the guns, which was then broken by
fresh assaults made by our troops in the
direction of Mametz Wood and Contal-
maison. For two days now, on Thursday
and Friday, there has been severe fight-
ing in that territory, and, although we
lost Gontalmaison last night, after taking
it in the morning, it is, I am sure, only
a temporary setback, for our position is
strong in its neighborhood, and great loss
has been inflicted upon the enemy. The
battle of Contalmaison is not yet finished.
It will be a distinct and important episode
in the history of this campaign.

I have been able to see something of
the battle, all the fierce picture of our
shellfire, but at the time with no accu-
rate idea of what really was happening
beyond our guns, and with that sense of
confusion and mystery which all soldiers
have when they are on the battlefield,
knowing very little of what is going on
to the left or right of them, not knowing
what is happening to themselves or why
they stand where they do, or what order
will next come to them, or whether our
men are doing well or badly.

SUNDAY, JULY 9
It often has been said that the enemy's
lines, which stretch from the sea to the
Vosges, are one great fortress, and this is
true, but it is more essentially and even
technically true of the line through which
we broke on July 1. The great German
salient which curves round from
Gommecourt to Fricourt is like a chain
of mediaeval fortresses connected by
earthworks and tunnels. The fortresses,

or strong places as we now call them,
are ruined villages stronger in defense
than any old tower because they are
filled with machine guns, trench mor-
tars, and other deadly engines of de-
struction— Gommecourt, Beaumont, Ha-
mel, Thiepval, Ovillers, La Boisselle,
and Fricourt. „ -

In spite of the superb courage of those
British battalions which flung them-
selves against those strongholds on the
left side of the German salient they did
not fall, but breaches were made in
their defenses which are now being
widened and deepened. On the southern
side, where the attack succeeded, La
Boisselle and Fricourt and, further east-
ward, Mametz and Montauban are ours,
and the attack is pushing further in to
turn the strong places on the left from
within the fortress walls, as it were, while
they are being weakened by assaults
from without.

MONDAY, JULY 10

The village of Contalmaison has been
taken by the British. The Germans
knew the position was hopeless. When
the British guns lifted they heard the
cheers of the British infantry on both
sides of the village, and many of them
streamed out of the village in a disor-
derly retreat only to be caught behind
by the extended barrages between Con-
talmaison and Pozieres and Bazentin-le-
Petit, so that their rout became a sham-
bles.

The British were quickly in the vil-
lage and, having learned the lesson by
experience of other troops at other
places, made a thorough search of ma-
chine gun implacements and dugouts so
there should be no further trouble with
this wasp's nest.

The men left in Contalmaison were in
a dreadful state. They suffered to the
very brink of human endurance and be-
yond. They were surprised to find them-
selves alive enough to be taken pris-
oners.

One of those men with whom I talked
this morning told me a tragic tale. He
spoke a little English, having been a cabi-
netmaker in Tottenham Court Road
some years ago before he went back to

THE BRITISH OFFENSIVE

797

Wiirttemberg, where when the war be-
gan he was, he said, taken and put in a
uniform and told to fight. With the
other men of the 122d Bavarian Regi-
ment he went into Contalmaison five
days ago. Soon the rations they brought
with them were finished. Owing to the
ceaseless gunfire it was impossible to get
fresh supplies. They suffered great
agonies of thirst and the numbers of their
dead and wounded increased steadily.

" There was a hole in the ground," said
this German cabinetmaker, whose head
was bound with a bloody bandage and
who was dazed and troubled when I
talked with him. " It was a dark hole
which held twenty men, all lying in a
heap together, and that was the only
dugout for my company, so there was
not room for more than a few. It was
necessary to take turns in this shelter
while outside the English shells were
coming and bursting everywhere. Two
or three men were dragged out to make
room for two or three others, then those
who went outside were killed or wounded.
Some of them had their heads blown off,
some of them had both legs torn off, and
some of them their arms, but we went on
taking turns in the hole, although those
who went outside knew it was their turn
to die very likely. At last the most of
those who came into the hole were
wounded, some of them badly, so that
we lay in blood.

" There was only one doctor there, an
unterofficer — he pointed to a man who
lay asleep on the ground face downward
— and he bandaged some of us till he had
no more bandages; then last night we
knew the end was coming. Your guns
began to fire altogether the dreadful
trommelfeurer, as we call it, and the
shells burst and smashed up the earth
about us. We stayed down in the hole
waiting for the end. Then we heard
your soldiers shouting. Presently two
of them came down into our hole. They
were two boys and had their pockets full
of bombs; they had bombs in their hands
also, and they seemed to wonder whether
they would kill us; but we were all
wounded, nearly all, and we cried ' Kame-
raden! ' and now we are prisoners, and I
am thirsty."

Other prisoners told me, in effect, that
the fire was terrible in Contalmaison,
and at least half their men holding it
were killed or wounded, so that when the
British entered last night they walked
over the bodies of the dead. These men
who escaped were in a pitiful condition.
They lay on the ground utterly exhaust-
ed, most of them, and, what was strange,
with their faces to the earth. Perhaps
it was to blot out the vision of the things
seen.

THURSDAY, JULY 13

Ovillers is a place of abominable ruin.
There is nothing left of it except dust.
There is not a wall standing two feet
high or a bit of a wall. The guns have
swept it flat, but under ground there are
still great cellars quarried out by the
inhabitants, who long ago fled, and in
these the Germans are holding out
against our attacks and our bombard-
ments.

Heavy shells have opened up some of
them and filled them with dead and
wounded, but many still stand strong,
and out of them come the enemy's
machine guns and bombers to make
counterattacks against the ditches and
debris from which our men have been
working forward. The ground is pitted
with enormous shell holes, in which the
men lie buried. Ovillers is perhaps more
ghastly than any ruined ground along
this front.

It was at 8 o'clock in the morning of
July 7 that the southeastern part of
the village was taken by assault. The
North Country men advanced from a
line to north of La Boisselle after a grand
bombardment and went over the open
ground to the labyrinth of trenches which
defended the village. These had been
smashed into a tumult of earth and sand-*
bags, but, as usual, some German ma-
chine gunners had been untouched in
their dugouts, and they came up to serve
their machines as soon as our barrage
lifted.

The next day our men worked their
way forward above ground and below
ground. Some crept out of the ditch
and worked up to the bombing post made
by officers on the left of the villa 50.

798 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Another body of troops made a sudden
forward movement and, taking the enemy
by surprise, marched round the left and
took up a line right across the southwest
end of Ovillers without loss. This was a
great gain, which enabled our men to link
up from separate posts.

SATURDAY, JULY 15
We have broken through the German
second line, through and beyond, on a
front of two miles and a half, and for the
first time since October, 1914, cavalry has
been in action.

Given a certain number of guns on a
certain length of front with hardened
troops ready for a big dash, and there
was no doubt we could break the
enemy's first line or system as we broke
through at Neuve Chapelle and at Loos.
But afterward? That was the hard
thing to solve. No one on the western
front had found the formula to carry an
offensive beyond the first line without
coming to a dead check at a river of
blood. The French troops who broke
through in Champagne fell before they
reached the second line. At Loos the
Highlanders and Londoners swept
through the first line and then at Hill
70 and Hulluch were faced by an anni-
hilating fire and could go no further
• except to death. But today we broke
the second German line.

The attack was to begin before dawn.
It was a night of beauty, very warm
and calm, with the moon giving a milky
light to the world. Clouds trailed across
it without obscuring its brightness. The
whitewashed walls of cottages and barns
appeared out of great gulfs of shadow.
For several miles only one figure stood
at every crossroad. It was the figure of
Christ on a wayside Calvary.

The road, which was lined with trees,
made a tunnel with its foliage, and at
the end of the tunnel, which showed a
patch of sky, there were strange lights
flashing like flaming swords, cutting
through the darkness. We went up to-
ward the lights and toward the mon-
strous tumult of noise, and walked
straight across the country toward the
centre of the circle of fire which was all
around us.

I described the bombardment on the
night before July 1. Then it seemed to
me that nothing could be more over-
whelming to one's soul and senses, but
this was worse, more wonderful and
more terrible.

Our batteries were firing with intense
fury. Flashes of them were away back
behind us, where the " heavies " have
their hiding place, and over all the
ground in front of our new line of at-
tack they came out of the black earth
with the short, sharp stabs of red flame,
whose light filled the hollows with pools
of fire, and the sky and ridges of ground
and earthworks and ruins and woods
across our lines were blazing with the
flashes of bursting shells. The blinding
light leaped about like a will-o'-the-wisp.
For a second it lit up all the horizon
over Contalmaison and gave a sudden
picture of a ghastly white and broken
chateau with clumps of trees about it.
Then it was blotted out by great black-
ness and instantly shifted to Mametz
Wood or to Montauban, revealing their
shapes intensely and shells crashing be-
yond them until they, too, disappeared
with the click of the black shutter.

A moment later and Fricourt was
filled with a white brilliance so that
every bit of its ruin, its hideous rum-
mage of earth, its old mine craters, and
its plauge-stricken stumps of trees was
etched upon one's eyes.

Along the German second line, by
Bazentin-le-Grand, Bazentin-le-Petit, and
Longueval, at the back of the woods,
shells were bursting without a second's
pause, and in great clusters they tore
open the ground and let out gusts of
flames. Flame fountains rose and
spread from the German trenches above
Pearl Wood.

The dark night was rent with all these
flames and hundreds of batteries feed-
ing fires. Every calibre gun was at
work. Heavy shells, 15-inch, 12.7, 8-inch,
6-inch, 4, 7, came overhead like flocks
of birds — infernal birds with wings that
beat the air into waves and came whin-
ing with a shrill high note and swooped
to earth with monstrous roar. Lighter
batteries far forward were beating a
devil's tattoo — one, two, three, four; one,

GENERAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG

British Commander in Chief of Armies Engaged in the Powerful Anglo-
French Offensive in Picardy
(Photo © Elliott & Frv)

GENERAL FOCH

The French CxOmmander Who, Under Joffre, Is Co-operating With

Sir Douglas Haig in the Great Anglo-French Drive

(PhWo from Bain News Service)

THE BRITISH OFFENSIVE

799

two, three, four, with sharp knocks that
clouted one's ears. I sat on a wooden
box on the top of an old dugout in the
midst of all the fury. There was a great
gun to my left, and every time it fired it
shook the box and all the earth under-
neath with violent vibration.

The moon disappeared soon after 3
o'clock, and no stars were to be seen, but
presently a faint ghost of dawn appeared.
The white earth of the old and disused
trenches about me became visible. A
lark arose and sang overhead, and at 3 : 30
o'clock there was a sudden moment of
hush. It was the lifting of the guns and
the time of attack. Over there in the
darkness by Mametz Wood and Montau-
ban thousands of men had risen to their,
feet, and were going forward to the sec-
ond German line or to the place where
death was waiting lor them.

At 4:10 there was a red glow to the
right of Montauban. It rose and spread
upward, a great torch with sparks danc-
ing over it.

" By jove," cried one of the men near
me, " that's Longueval on fire."

In a little while there was no doubt
about it. I could see the sharp edge of
the broken buildings in* the heart of the
red glow. The village of Longueval was
in flames. * * *

Later in the day the backwash of the
battle, the wounded and the prisoners,
came down like the tide, but long before
then I knew we had broken the second
line and our men were fighting on the
high ground beyond. The village of
Longueval was ours; Bazentin-le-Grand,
both wood and village, and Bazentin-le-
Petit were ours. The gallant body of
men had swept through Trones Wood,
on the extreme right of the line, and
patrols were pushing into Delville Wood
and toward the highest ridge behind the
broken German trenches.

I hear these trenches in the second
German line are not deeply dug and that
the dugouts themselves hardly bomb-
proof.

For once in a way the Germans have
been overconfident, and paid now a bitter
price for their pride in believing the first
line was impregnable. I do not care to
write about this part of the fighting. It

was bloody work, and would not be good
to read. An incident was told me by a
kilted Sergeant as he lay wounded. From
one of the dugouts came a German
officer. He had a wild light in his eyes,
and carried a great axe.

"I surrender," he said in good Eng-
lish, and in broad Scotch the Sergeant
told him if he had an idea of surrender-
ing it would be a good and wise thing to
drop his chopper first; but the German
officer swung it high, and it came like a
flash past the Sergeant's head. Like a
flash also the bayonet did its work.

While the men were cleaning up the
dugouts in the first-line trenches other
men pressed on and stormed into Longue-
val village. The great fires there which
I had seen in the darkness died down, and
there was only a glow and smolder of
them in the ruins; but the machine guns
were still chattering.

In one broken building there were six
of them firing through holes in the walls.
It was a strong redoubt, sweeping the
ground which had once been a roadway
and now was a shambles. Scottish sol-
diers rushed the place and flung bombs
into it until there was no more swish of
bullets, but only a rising of smoke clouds
and black dust.

Longueval was a heap of charred
bricks above the ground, but there was
still trouble below ground before it was
firmly taken. There are many cellars
in which the Germans fought like wolves
at bay, and down in the darkness of
these places men fought savagely, seeing
only the glint of each others' eyes and
feeling for each others' throats, unless
there were still bombs handy to make a
quicker ending.

It was primitive warfare; cavemen
fought like that in such darkness, though
not with bombs, which belong to our age.
TUESDAY, JULY 18

In all the fighting during the last fort-
night the struggle for Ovillers stands
out separately as a siege in which both
attack and defense were of the most
dogged and desperate kind. The surren-
der of the remnants of its garrison last
night ends an episode which will not be
forgotten in history.

These men were of the Third Prussian

800

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Guards, and our Commander in Chief in
his day's dispatches has paid tribute to
their bravery, which is echoed by the
officers and men who fought against-
them. It is a tribute to our own troops
also, who, by no less courage, broke down
the stubborn resistance and captured the
garrison.

I have already described the earlier
phases of the siege. * * * But after
that, when our men were separated from
the enemy by only a yard or two or by
only a barricade or two, the artillery on
both sides ceased to fire upon Ovillers
lest the gunners should kill their own
men. They barraged intensely round
about. Our shells fell incessantly to the
north and east. So that the beleaguered
garrison should not get supplies or rein-
forcements we made a wall of death
about them. But, though no shells now
burst over the ground where many dead
lay strewn, there was artillery of a
lighter kind, not less deadly. It was the
artillery of machine guns and bombs.
The Prussian Guards made full use of
the vaulted cellars and ruined houses.
They made a series of small keeps which
were defended almost entirely by ma-
chine-gun fire.

Between the attacks of our bombing
parties they went below ground into
dark vaults, where it was safe enough
from trench mortar and hand grenades,
leaving a sentry or two on the lookout
for any infantry assault. As soon as
we advanced, the machine guns set to

work and played their hose of bullets
across the ground which our men had
to cover.

One by one, by getting around about
them, by working zigzag ways through
cellars and ruins, by sudden rushes of
bombing parties led by young officers
of daring spirit, we knocked out those
machine-gun emplacements, and of the
gunners who served them until yester-
day there was only a last remnant of
the garrison left in Ovillers.

These men of the Third Prussian
Guard long had been in a hopeless po-
sition. They were starving because all
supplies were cut off by our never-end-
ing barrage. They had no water sup-
ply, so suffered all the torture of great
thirst. They were living in a charnal
house strewn with the dead bodies of
their comrades and with wounded men
delirious for lack of drink.

Human nature could make no longer
resistance, and at last the officers raised
the signal of surrender and came over
with nearly 140 men, who held their
hands up.

The fighting had been savage. At
close grips, in broken earthworks and
deep cellars, there had been no senti-
ment, but British soldiers and Germans
had flung themselves upon each other
with bombs and any kinds of weapon,
but now, when all was ended, the last
of the German garrison was received
with the honors of war.

The Battle of the Somme

Anglo-French Teamwork

IT is not improbable that the con-
certed offensive against the German
lines in Picardy, begun July 1 after
the most terrible bombardment
known even in this war of high explo-
sives, will go down into history as the
battle of the Somme, and that it will
mark the beginning of an important
change in the course of events. It has
already changed the war map in that
part of France, and seems likely to

change it much more as the weeks go
on.

Britain at last is fully prepared to
fight. The great armies recruited and
trained by Lord Kitchener, with the
mountains of munitions piled up by Lloyd
George, have become a tremendous
weapon in the skilled hands of General
Sir Douglas Haig; and they are sup-
ported on the right by a French army
under General Foch that has shown itself

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

801

more than able to keep pace with them.
The fighting of the British wing is elo-
quently described in the foregoing article
by Philip Gibbs, but it must not be for-
gotten that the battle of the Somme is a
joint enterprise of close teamwork under
the supreme direction of General Joffre.

Thus far we have heard less of the
French than of the English wing, but its
achievement has been equally brilliant.
The Germans caught between thes<*
Frenchmen and Peronne, like those
caught between the British and Bapaume,
have resisted to the limit of human en-
durance, but nothing human could sur-
vive the awful blasting of high explosives
to which their first and second trench
lines were subjected; and the Allies now
have the shells and the men to keep up
the pressure indefinitely. The stronger
battalions are henceforth on their side.

A correspondent who visited the French
army on July 9 in its advanced position
near Peronne gives us this glimpse of
the country over which the battle had
swept :

" As far as the eye can see the view is
utterly the same; utterly monotonous,
nothing but desolate slopes that once
were a thickly populated French coun-
tryside. The complete inhumanity of
outlook strikes one tremendously. Here
two great armies are at death grips, yet
apart from the incessant tumult of can-
nonade and the never-ending rows of
little smoke clouds — new ones forming
before the preceding ones have time to
melt — one might be thousands of miles
from civilization. Our maps are of lit-
tle assistance. Here should be Feuillers,
there Flaucourt, further on Assevilliers,
but one can distinguish nothing save
heaps of blackened stones that appear
through the glasses. Even the roads
have been swept away by the bombard-
ment. Nothing but ditchlike trench lines
mark the presence of humans.

" Suddenly voices cried : ' Look over
there, you can see soldiers.' About half
a mile before us one sees groups of men
like ants working busily on the hillside.
Through the glasses one sees that they
are sheltering themselves with extraor-
dinary care. Some have strange oblong
shields like the ancient Roman legion-

aries. Others are grouped under a kind
of casemate on wheels whose roof
touches the ground in front rising in a
curve behind to give room for the work-
ers. Still others hide behind a ripple of
ground or hillocks.

" All are working furiously with picks
and shovels. I have been told that the
British losses have been heightened by
an utter disregard of danger. Even when
not engaged in attacks our allies seem
still not to realize the necessity of unre-
mitting caution. But the French have
learned the lesson that Verdun hammered
home — that the best soldier is he who re-
gards his life as belonging to France,
something precious, never to be risked
save when' sheer necessity demands it.
That, combined with the magnificent ar-
tillery service, is the reason why the
French losses in this battle have been less
than half — I speak from intimate knowl-
edge— those in any previous French of-
fensive in proportion to the number of
troops engaged."

A German correspondent, describing
the battle of July 12, wrote to a leading
Berlin newspaper :

" The violent English attacks that de-
veloped on Monday afternoon on the road
from Albert to Bapaume, and whose prin-
cipal blow was directed against our posi-
tion from Ovillers to La Boisselle, at Con-
talmaison, the Wood of Mametz, Bazen-
tin-le-Grand, and the woods of Bernafay
and Thrones, have continued uninter-
ruptedly for forty-eight hours, having
increased to unheard-of violence. Ap-
proximately fourteen kilometers long, the
attacking front presents a picture of one
immense battle, swaying now One way,
now the other.

" The English, who have a colossal
numerical superiority, hurl attacking
wave after -wave, division after division,
against our defenses, staking everything
on a renewed embittered effort to wipe
out the failure of the first offensive week
by widening the strip of ground so far
gained by them, in order to give the
wedge driven into our lines a broader
front.

" What our troops have performed in
stemming this attacking flood and what
they still are doing every moment belong

802

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

to the most glorious deeds of this war.
Repeatedly in the course of these charges
of unheard-of embitteredness, which con-
tinue day and night, the English have
succeeded in temporarily getting a foot-
ing on the edge of positions they strove
to take, but so far we have invariably
succeeded in tearing their achieved suc-
cess away from them by our counterat-
tacks.

" The French are mainly pressing for-
ward in the region of Estrees and Belloy,
and also against Barleux — in other
words, against our defensive dams on our
south and southeast flanks. Here, too,
the attacks follow one another like waves.
A stubborn battle rages incessantly, in
which the enemy's embittered passion for
gaining ground and the loyal and glorious
firmness of our defenders measure
strength. Particularly Hill 97 and La
Maisonette continue to be the favorite
goal of the French. Their attempts to
storm them continue to be checked by our
barrier fire. Likewise, their mass storms
in the sector from Belloy to Barleux col-
lapsed, with frightful losses, in our fire.

" But the battle continues, and these
two sectors in the enemy's offensive have
perhaps not yet reached their last hor-
rible climax of intensity."

In the first ten days the Anglo-French
Armies had, to quote Sir Douglas Haig,
"completed the methodical capture of
the whole of the enemy's first system of
defense on a front of 14,000 yards," and
had taken 22,000 German prisoners and
104 guns. By the end of the first fort-
night they had shattered the second line
of German defenses and paused to fortify
themselves in their new positions. At
the present writing they are undergoing
heavy counterattacks, but are holding
most of what they have won. They are
prepared to keep up a slow and steady
pressure, pounding every step of the way
with heavy shells if necessary.

The British method of storming
trenches, which has won the admiration
of French officers, is to combine the
smashing of concrete shelters under
heavy shell fire with a system of night
raiding by scouting parties. The raiders
I locate hidden machine guns and finish
the destruction of barbed-wire entangle-

ments, thus opening the way for the
usual charges of infantry. If Sir Doug-
las Haig ever breaks through into open
country he will make extensive use of
cavalry.

David Lloyd George, in his new role
of War Minister, gives this explanation
of the latest turn of events:

"We have crossed the watershed, and
now victory is beginning to flow in our
direction. This change is due to the im-
provement in our equipment. The Brit-
ish Navy has until recently absorbed
more than half the metal workers of this
country. The task of building new ships
and repairing the old ones for the gigan-
tic navy, and fitting and equipping them,
occupies the energies of a million men.
Most of our new factories are now com-
plete, most of the machinery has been
set up. Hundreds of thousands of men
and women, hitherto unaccustomed to
metal and chemical work, have been
trained for munitions making.

" Every month we are turning out hun-
dreds of guns and howitzers, light,
medium, and heavy; our heavy guns are
rolling in at a great rate, and we are
turning out nearly twice as much ammu-
nition in a single week and, what's more,
nearly three times as much heavy shell,
as we fired in the great offensive in
September, although the ammunition we
expended in that battle was the result of
many weary weeks' accumulation. The
new factories and workshops we set up
have not yet attained one-third their full
capacity, but their output is now increas-
ing with great rapidity. Our main diffi-
culty in organization, construction, equip-
ment, labor supply, and readjustment has
been solved. If officials, employers, and
workmen keep at it with the same zeal
and assiduity as they have hitherto em-
ployed, our supplies will soon be over-
whelming.

" I cannot help thinking that the im-
provement in the Russian ammunition
has been one of the greatest and most
unpleasant surprises the enemy has sus-
tained. Still, our task is but half accom-
plished. Every great battle furnishes
additional proof that this is a war of
equipment. More ammunition means
more victories and fewer casualties."

Six Weeks of the Russian Drive

Written for CURRENT HISTORY
By Charles Johnston

[See Russian War Map on Page 813]

A the beginning of the drive the
Russian battle front ran nearly
due north and south from Riga
to Rumania, not far from the
27th meridian of east longitude. Its
length was about 600 miles. Of troops
standing shoulder to shoulder it would
take 2,000,000 to guard this line; a
double row would number 4,000,000 men.
The active Russian Army of the West
before war broke out numbered twenty-
seven corps, or 1,080,000 men, to whom
probably twice as many reserve corps
were added during the mobilization. It
is probable that the fighting line on the
Russian front contains about the same
number, seventy-five to eighty army
corps, with ample reserves immediately
available. These men are divided into
about a dozen armies of six or seven
army corps (240,000 to 280,000 men)
each, spread along the line from north to
south.

These dozen armies are gathered into
three groups — the north, the centre, and
the south. General Kuropatkin, War
Minister and Commander in Chief in the
war of 1905-6 against Japan, commands
the northern group, whose most impor-
tant task is the defense of the Dwina
from Riga to Dvinsk. General Evert
commands the centre army group. Gen-
eral Brusiloff commands the group of the
south, to which the most active part in
the offensive has hitherto been assigned.
General BrusilofTs army group is
divided into four armies. The most
northern of the four, operating in the
direction of Kovel and Vladimir- Volynski,
(the Styr-Stokhod region,) is commanded
by General Keladin ; the second from the
north, operating against the northeast
corner of Galicia in the general direction
of Lemberg, is commanded by General
Sakharoff; the third from the north,
which is aiming due west toward Stanis-
lavoff, (Stanislau,) is commanded by

General Cherbacheff; the fourth and
southernmost is commanded by the brill-
iant and successful General Lechitski.

Opposed to the three Russian army
groups are three Teutonic army groups.
The most northern, facing General Kuro-
patkin, is commanded by Field Marshal
von Hindenburg. The Teutonic army
group of the centre, facing General Evert
about the Pripet River and marshland,
is commanded by Prince Leopold. The
southern Teutonic army group was, when
the drive began, under the command of
Archduke Friedrich of Austria; he
appears to have been superseded by
General Linsingen, who defended the
Carpathians against General Brusiloff a
year and a half ago.

It is probable that each of the four
armies which make up General Brusi-
loff' s army group contains six or seven
corps, or about 250,000 men, and that,
whatever may be their losses, each corps
will be kept continually up to its full
strength. It is known that Russia
recently brought to the fighting line some
3.000,000 new troops between the ages
of 21 and 23. On them the brunt of the
present fighting is falling, and they have
done brilliantly. There is also abundance
of large guns and shells.

Thus equipped, the new Russian
armies began the drive in the first days
of June, bringing a steady and fairly
equal pressure to bear on practically the
whole front from the Pripet marshes
(the great swamp country about Minsk
and^ftnsk) southward to the Rumanian
frontier. Meanwhile the two army
groups further north, under General
Kuropatkin and General Evert, began
systematically to hammer the forces
along their line, under Field Marshal
von Hindenburg and Prince Leopold,
with such vigor, so real a threat of
immediate offensive, that there could be
small possibility of withdrawing Teu-

804 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

tonic forces from any of these northern
points to stiffen the lines further south,
against which the real drive was directed.
But we should keep clearly in mind that,
should the northern Teutonic army
groups show signs of weakening at any
point between Riga and the Pripet,
Russia will immediately start a forward
drive at that point. She now has the
men, the guns, and the organization to
do this. Kuropatkin or Evert may at
any moment receive directions to advance
from General Alexeieff, Commander in
Chief under the Emperor, to whom is
intrusted the task of correlating the
movements of the three army groups,
while General Shuvaieff, as War Min-
ister, keeps up the flow of men and
munitions.

The Teutonic line did not resist the
Russian line equally at all points. The
Austrian armies under the Archduke
Josef Ferdinand and General Puhallo,
charged with the defense of Lutsk and
Bubno, were driven backward, early
losing both these strongly fortified towns.
The Teutonic line began to bend back at
that point toward Kovel and Vladimir-
Volynski, and in this direction General
Keladin's Russian army has just crossed
the Stokhod River and is approaching
Kovel. The Teutonic army below these,
operating under General Boehm-Ermolli
to the west of Tarnapol, held its ground
more firmly, though it was also driven
backward from its lines. To the south
of this, again, General von Bothmer was
pushed steadily back to and across the
Stripa (one of the north-and-south tribu-
taries on the east bank of the Dniester)
by General Cherbacheff . At the southern
end of the line General von Pflanzer-
Ballin, generally spoken of in the bul-
letins as General Pflanzer, was caught
by the brilliant strategy of General
Lechitski, who was very abundantly%up-
plied with Cossack cavalry, (not included
in the system of twenty-seven army corps
above described,) who are perfectly
adapted to the rapidly moving warfare
we have witnessed in Bukowina.

It would seem that General Lechitski
so heavily attacked Czernowitz, the cap-
ital of Bukowina, from the east that the
whole attention and resources of General

Pflanzer were concentrated on meeting
this attack. Meanwhile Lechitski sent
further forces up the Pruth, just south
of which Czernowitz lies, to the railroad
town of Snyatin, the capture of which
secured possession to the Russians of the
one railroad by which General Pflanzer's
forces might have got out of Bukowina
and westward through the Carpathians
to some Hungarian base. But General
Pflanzer seems to have held on too long.
Not only did he find Czernowitz taken
by fierce Russian assaults across the
Pruth, but when, after losing the city,
he turned to escape he found the Rus-
sians had got ahead of him and were
already astride of the railroad at
Snyatin.

From the Czernowitz- Snyatin line, thus
taken, General Lechitski opened out his
forces like a fan, sweeping the pieces of
General Pflanzer's army southward to-
ward the Rumanian frontier and west-
ward toward the Carpathian foothills,
which come far forward on the Bukowina
lowlands. At this stage the Cossacks be-
gan to do yeoman's service, racing after
the retreating Austrians and even mak-
ing their way at two or three points
through the passes into Hungarian Tran-
sylvania.

General Lechitski has, perhaps, been
criticised for sending his Cossacks
through the passes to the Hungarian
plains ; but it should be remembered that
there lie the most fertile wheat fields of
the Central Empires, and that the prin-
ciples of war impose on Lechitski the duty
of destroying them if he possibly can.
Hence the frenzied haste of the Hunga-
rian harvesters recently reported from
Vienna.

But much more important from a stra-
tegic point of view were the operations of
General Lechitski to the north and west
of Snyatin. The railroad runs north-
west, up the valley of the Pruth, to Kolo-
mea, whence one branch goes north to
Stanislavoff, the base of General von
Bothmer's army, while another branch
goes west by Korosmezo to Hungary. By
capturing Kolomea Lechitski thus cut the
main artery which was feeding General
von Bothmer's army. The later capture
of Delatyn, on the branch line to Hun-

SIX WEEKS. OF THE RUSSIAN DRIVE

805

gary, strengthened Lechitski's command
of the southern Galician railroad system,
which had been feeding General von
Bothmer's army.

In part this menace from behind, in
part the steadily growing pressure of the
Russian forces under ' General Cherba-
cheff, has been compelling General von
Bothmer to 'retreat, first relaxing his
hold on the Stripa, which he had defended
with great vigor and skill. Next in order
is likely to be an equally skillful and vig-
orous defense by his army of the Koro-
piec and then of the Zlota Lipa, the two
next north and south tributaries of the
Dniester, as he falls back westward to the
Dniester, and then across it to Stanis-
lavoff. But it is quite evident that he is
in grave danger at present of holding on
too long, as General Pflanzer did at Czer-
nowitz, and allowing Lechitski's agile
and athletic troops to get up behind him
and cut off his retreat.

But the removal of General von Both-
mer's army, or its circumvention by the
fleet-footed Lechitski, would mean an ex-
actly similar menace to General Boehm-
Ermolli's army in its turn, and a danger-
ous threat against Lemberg from the
south. And theoretically, now that the
Russians have got around the Teutonic
right flank, it is possible that they may
continue the rolling-up process as far as
Riga and the Baltic. But, needless to
say, the Teutonic armies will not wait for
this, but will slowly move backward, to
keep their menaced right wing in safety
so far as is possible.

One of the wonders of the Russian ad-
vance is, how the flying army of Lechit-
ski is supplied; of necessity he must be
holding a stiff force before General von
Bothmer's right wing, to guard against a
quick thrust southward at the Russian
line of supplies across the Dniester. But
even then the problem of transportation
is a tremendous one. We may conjecture,
however, that much of the food for Le-
chitski's army (but no part of its muni-
tions) is coming up the railroad from
Czernowitz and from Rumania, further
down the line.

A danger against which Lechitski will
presently have to guard is an attack di-
rected against him by new forces coming

up from Hungary through the Carpa-
thian passes. It is even reported that
Field Marshal von Mackensen, whose
brilliant drive of the Spring of 1915 is
now in appearance being reversed, is pre-
paring just such a force, behind the Car-
pathians. But so far this is only rumor.
Once Lechitski gets a firm hold on the
passes, this will be vastly more difficult.

Meanwhile, the Russian drive toward
Kovel is being stiffly opposed by the
army of General von Linsingen with
a strong leaven of German forces among
the Austrian troops. But the Rus-
sian drive has already gone so far that
the Teutons have been shaken out of the
positions they had been all Winter pre-
paring, the steel and concrete trenches .
which are the last word of modern field
defense. It seems unlikely that they can
extemporize further lines of defense in
the rear as strong as those which the
Russian big guns have already smashed.
Therefore it would be logical to look for
a steady Russian advance to, and then
beyond, Kovel and Vladimir- Volynski.
Needless to say, every foot of the way
will be stubbornly contested by the Teu-
tons; but as soon as Kovel and Vladimir^
Volynski fall, there will inevitably arise
the question of readjusting the Teuton
lines northward from Kovel, perhaps all
the way to Dwinsk and Riga. On the
northern sector General Kuropatkin has
begun what may be a general offensive,
and General Sakharoff has driven the ad-
vance defenders of Kovel back across the
Lipa.

Maximilian Harden, who has a high
reputation for fearless truth-speaking,
declared, in the early days of July, that
Germany had thirty army corps ready in
barracks, with 600,000 new recruits
available each year. That Austria has
any great available reserves seems un-
likely. But it is quite evident that, if the
German thirty corps have to be divided
between the west and the east, and if the
Russians have been accounting for a
daily average of nearly 10,000 men, or,
say, an army corps in four or five days,
that part of the thirty German corps
available for the eastern front may not,
theoretically, go much beyond tiding over
the Summer months.

War Events From Two Viewpoints

In order that no phase of the truth may be overlooked, CURRENT HISTORY offers two expert
interpretations of the military events of the month, one written from the German, the other
from the American point of view.

[AMERICAN VIEW]

The Month's Military Developments

From June 15 to July 15, 1916

By J. B. W. Gardiner

Formerly Lieutenant Eleventh United States Cavalry
[See Maps of Russian Front on Pages 812 and 813]

NO period of the war has been as
full of interest as the month just
passed. For the first time since
war was declared the Allies have
not only found the key to success, if
such a key there is, but are using it. The
German position is often referred to as
an iron band within which the Teutons
are fighting not only to go ahead them-
selves, but to keep the Allies out. This
is a figure not altogether inexact. The
Germans are surrounded by enemies, in
contact wrth the Teuton forces at almost
every point. Such fighting as the Allies
have done heretofore, except where they
were acting on the defensive against a
German attack, has been on isolated sec-
tors. There has been no attempt at a
general offensive, and such attacks as
have been made have been planned for
with no idea of co-operation with other
fronts, but have been independent of any
general plan. \

The present general offensive^ is the
result of the planning of the Allied Gen-
eral Staff, an entirely new body which
came into existence only a few months
ago, but which is now directing all the
Allies' moves. For the first time in the
war the Allies are all under a single
command, and the movements of each
are subordinated to the general good.

About the middle of May last the Aus-
trians began their offensive move against
Italy, and unquestionably Italy was get-
ting the worst of the fighting. There
was but one way to stop the offense, and
that was to attack the Austrians heavily

in some other field. Russia waited until
the Austrians had become thoroughly
committed to the Italian offensive, until
they had gone so far that they could
not draw back, and then struck with the
accumulated power of nine months' prep-
aration. The break in the Austrians and
the tremendous losses they suffered
forced the Germans to their assistance,
as the entire Teuton line from Riga to
Bessarabia was threatened. The Germans
collected men from every possible quar-
ter, and, massing in the centre of the
Russian attack — that is, west of the
Lutsk salient — held up the Russian drive
at the Stokhod River.

On the western front the Allies were
strangely quiet. The British had not
left their trenches for months, the
French were resisting the German pres-
sure at Verdun, but were not taking the
initiative themselves. They waited also,
waited until Germany had had time to
transfer troops from the west to the east
if she intended to do so, and then they
struck.

Today, then, the Teutons find them-
selves for the first time feeling the full
force of the Allies on every front. It is
an entirely new experience and it is not
to be wondered at that the military
critics of Germany openly state that Ger-
many's situation is one to worry about.
Heretofore Germany has been able,
through the " one-attack-at-a-time "
policy of the Allies, to throw reinforce-
ments at a threatened point as soon as
the attack developed. Interior lines of

WAR EVENTS FROM TWO VIEWPOINTS

807

COMPLETE VIEW OF THE WESTERN FRONT FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL TO

SWITZERLAND

communication and excellent railroad
lines reduced this problem to its simplest
form. But this situation exists no longer.
Germany is being attacked at every point
in the circle with which the Central
Powers are girded. To weaken one point
in order to strengthen another is now to
court disaster. The war has been re-
duced not to a question of staying power
alone, but to the question of the ability
of the Germans to stand against the con-
centrated power of the entire Entente,
applied with tremendous pressure to
every point on the German front.

The Allies' attacks are just beginning,
in fact are not yet six weeks old. The
end is still a long way off, whichever way
the tide of battle may swing. It may

well be, however, that we are now seeing
the beginning of the first real move
toward peace.

On June 15, when last month's review
was written, the Russians were conduct-
ing two offensives, one along the Rovnor
Kovel railroad in Volhynia, the other
against the bridgehead of Czernowitz.
Beginning at the Pripet and running
south, the Russian position at that time
was along the east bank of the Styr as
far south at Kolki, where the line broke
to the west in a wide curve, reaching a
point about twenty miles east of Kovel
on the Kovel-Rovno railroad. From here
it broke to the east again, coming back
to .about the original meridian in North-
ern Galicia, and then following the line

808

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

SCENE OP THE BRITISH AND FRENCH DRIVE IN PICARDY.
SHOWS TWO WEEKS' ADVANCE

THE BROKEN LINE

of the Stripa River, crossing the Dnies-
ter at its junction with the Stripa and
breaking east near the Pruth at Czerno-
witz.

This line was one in which practically
every feature of terrain favored the
Teutons. The Styr is in itself not only
difficult to cross but is lined throughout
almost its entire length with broad marsh
belts, which make it the most admirable
defensive obstacle imaginable. Further

south, where the line bent westward, the
Stokhod, on which the Germans were re-
sisting the Russian advance on Kovel,
was also an admirable defensive screen.
The western bank is lined with high hills
which overlook wide stretches of country
on the eastern bank, so that an attack
coming from the east is visible almost
from the time it starts. To the south
the same general condition prevailed.
Everywhere the Teuton forces were safe-

WAR EVENTS FROM TWO VIEWPOINTS

809

ly ensconced behind defensive screens of
rivers with hills behind them.

For many days the Russians attacked
fiercely along the Stokhod, where the Ger-
mans were in force, but could make no
headway. In their retreat the Austrians
had destroyed all the bridges and cross-
ings over the river, and the Russians
were unable to construct and maintain
others in the face of the German fire.
After a period of ill-success, the Russian
attack shifted to the north. The prin-
cipal object here was defensive. The
northern side of the salient which the
Russians had driven forward was a
danger point. If the Germans could
force it to give way, their entire move-
ment would collapse. It was necessary
therefore to straighten their line.

The attack came from a point just
north of Czartorisk, and was almost im-
mediately successful. The forcing of the
river was accomplished and the Russians
poured through the gaps. The great
break in the line occurred where the
Styr is crossed by the Kovel-Sarny rail-
road, and consequently it was along this
line that the Russia*n advance was made.
For fourteen miles over a wide front the
German retreat continued until finally
the line of the lower Stokhod was reached
and the Russian advance was halted. The
Russians, however, did succeed in
straightening out their line as far as the
Galician border, thereby eliminating all
future danger of an attack from the
north.

In Bukowina Russian successes were
even more marked. Czernowitz fell into
their hands on June 16, and the gateway
to the Austrian crown land was flung
wide open. The Russians crossed the
Pruth, driving the Austrians in disorder
before them and taking one position after
another. It seemed for a time that the
entire right wing of the Austrians was
to be cut off from the main body and
captured. In Southern Bukowina, after
having been driven back to the ridges of
the Carpathian Mountains, they suc-
ceeded in making good their retreat
through Kirlibaba Pass. Further to the
north, between the Dniester and the
Pruth, the Russian progress was also un-
checked. Town after town fell into their

hands. Kolomea, the principal railroad
centre of that section, was taken and the
entire position of the Austrians along
the Stripa threatened. As a matter of
fact, the Russian advance carrying west
of Tlumacz has already completely out-
flanked the Stripa line, so that, if the
Austrians now holding the Russians in a
temporary check along the Stanislau-
Nadvorna line give way, the Austrian
forces south of the Northern Galician
border will be threatened with positive
disaster.

The blow which the Russians have de-
livered to the Teutons has been one of
the hardest given to any belligerent dur-
ing the entire war. Not even the great
German drive of last year has had the
effect of the Russian offense of the past
six weeks. In this case it is much more
than a loss of territory; it is almost the
destruction of an army. Russia had vast
reserves on which to fall back.

Austria apparently has none. Austria
alone of all the belligerents is practically
exhausted. Only a week ago the Aus-
trian Department of War endeavored to
get the consent of the Government to call
into the military service all men between
the ages of 56 and 60. Nothing could
show more eloquently the very dire
straits into which the Austrian Army
has fallen.

The Russian blow has had more to do
with this state of affairs than anything
any other belligerent has done. Italy
has, of course, offered some contribution.
But the lion's share has been Russia's.
In this period of six weeks Russia has
taken prisoner nearly 300,000 troops. In
addition to this there have been vast
captures of military supplies of all kinds,
guns of all calibres, and, what the Rus-
sians most need, machine guns. It is
not too much to say now that Austria,
as an offensive force, has been eliminated
from the war. Never again will w*e see
an offensive movement initiated by
Francis Joseph's troops. Needless to say,
this is a great victory, and comes very
near to being a decision.

On July 1 the long-expected offen-
sive of the Allies on the western front
started. The scene of action was from
Thiepval, a few miles north of Albert, to

810

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Foucaucourt, north of Chaulnes. This
was the first serious effort the French
and the British had made since last Sep-
tember, when they struck in Artois
and Champagne. Following the lessons
learned from the Germans at Verdun,
however, there was no attempt made to
thrust deeply into the line as before;
the movement was a consistent and con-
stantly maintained push. This neces-
sarily imposed certain delays. The con-
sumption of shell in preparing for the
infantry attack is excessive, the avenues
of supply not sufficient to maintain a
steady flow of the necessary volume.
Consequently, after each preparation,
when the infantry has gone ahead, it is
necessary to wait before sending the in-
fantry on again until a new supply has
been brought up to the new front. With
this understanding it can properly be
said that, in spite of all opposition, the
French and British lines have moved for-
ward uninterruptedly.

The French, who held the line south
of the Somme, have, up to this writing,
made the greater progress. This is prob-
ably due to the fact that the French at-
tack was in the nature of a surprise,
whereas the British offense was well ad-
vertised and was therefore expected.
The French have carried the Germans
back toward Peronne, almost to the
banks of the Somme. They swept for-
ward, day after day, the German re-
sistance being totally inadequate, until
they reached a point on the Somme di-
rectly across the river from Peronne,
while south of that point they rested but
a scant mile from the river. There they
halted until the British, who had ex-
perienced the most bitter resistance,
could catch up and connect the two lines.

The British attack has been successful
from the outset where the lines run
north of and parallel to the Somme.
Along the Ancre, after some of the hard-
est fighting of the war, they have been
able to record but small advances. At
this date, however, there is every indica-
tion that the attack along the east bank
of the Ancre has been abandoned, and
that all future efforts, until the German
salient has been cleared out, will be
toward the north between Contalmaison

and Hardecourt. The British move is
leveled at Bapaume, the greatest rail-
road centre in this region. Two of the
main French national systems pass
through this town, and both of them are
essential to the Germans if they wish to
retain their present positions.

So far the indications are that the
British will be able to reach their ob-
jective. Starting in low ground, with
what might be termed the Plateau of
Bapaume, rising almost three miles away
in their immediate front, they have cov-
ered this three miles and appear to be
safely intrenched on the edge of the
plateau. The German first and second
lines — defenses that they have had al-
most two years to perfect — have fallen,
and the third line is now under bom-
bardment. It is a question now entirely
of shell supply. If the organization of
British industry for war purposes has
reached the point where the supply plus
the stock equals the demand it does not
seem that the Germans, with their
dwindling numbers, can hold their pres~
ent lines much longer. If the next month
shows no material change in the relative
positions, however, still another offensive
at some later date will have to be under-
taken before the Soisson salient has been
flattened. In the other theatres the month
has not produced any startling change.
In Trentino the Italians, after the Rus-
sian attack on the Austrian line was well
under way, seized the initiative and have,
by consistent fighting, recovered at least
half of the distance previously lost to
the Austrians. The fighting is still go-
ing on, and the Italians seem to be gain-
ing important local victories.

The operations in Mesopotamia have
been practically suspended. The terrific
heat in the valleys of the Tigris and
Euphrates prohibits any extensive activ-
ity. Further north, however, in the
Caucasus, the Russians are again ad-
vancing with rapidity and have reached
and hold strongly a point half way be-
tween Erzerum and Erzingan. This
campaign has not yet reached the point
where it is a menace to the Turkish arms.
It is filling its purpose, however, in pre-
venting any attempt to invade Egypt or
to send the Turkish Army to other fields.

[GERMAN VIEW]

Meaning of the Two Great Drives

Written for CURRENT HISTORY

By H. H. von Mellenthin

Foreign Editor New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung
[See War Maps on Pages 812 and 813]

E events of the past month in al
theatres of war have clearly demon-
strated that the trench is not the
last word in military science. The Ger-
man campaign against Verdun and the
two offensives on the southeastern and
western front have substituted mobile
action for position warfare. The open
battle has wrested the decision from
trench warfare. Destruction — no longer
the exhaustion — of the enemy once more
forms the keynote of strategy and the
aim of all actions.

The possession of the fortress of Ver-
dun in itself has become a purely inci-
dental matter as far as its strategical
importance is concerned. At Verdun
bleeds, in heroic resistance, an open
wound on the body of French military
power.

The great offensive movements in the
west and southeast also have the strategy
of destruction as their guiding principle.
The military expert of The London Times
writes, " Our principal aim is to kill or
wound 200,000 Germans every month,"
and on the eastern front the Russian
steam roller has been pressed into service
to " crush " the enemy.

Thus, on a wide detour, the strategy
that is to determine the decision has re-
turned to its point of inception, which
was marked, immediately after the out-
break of the war, by the Russian invasion
of East Prussia and the German advance
on Paris. Also, the decision has re-
turned to the same local theatres of
operation on which it had struck its first
blows. The driving power of the Allies
has obtained a degree of additional
strength that corresponds with the con-
solidation of the theatres of operation.
Moreover, the new local concentration
has made possible a closer unity of action
on the part of the allied forces, as

demonstrated in the simultaneous Rus-
sian, Franco-British, and Italian offen-
sives.

Any definition of the present situation
must be made with this question in view:
How and how far have the actual events
up to date served the ultimate aim,
namely, the destruction of the enemy ?

The great Russian drive on the Volhyn-
ian, Galician, and Bukowina fronts was
begun with the following basic ideas:
First, an advance along the Kovel-Cholm-
Lublin railway; second, along the Rovno-
Dubno-Brody-Lemberg railway, (right
wing;) third, against Tarnopol and fur-
ther along the railroad to Rohatyn across
the Dniester against the Styr; fourth,
via Buczacz and Stanislau against the
Wyszkow Pass of the Eastern Carpa-
thians; fifth, against Czernowitz. (Three
and four form the centre, five constitutes
the left wing.)

This offensive, thought out on a gi-
gantic scale and begun over an equally
gigantic area, under the command of
General Brusiloff, the leading Russian
adherent of the mobile strategy, was di-
rected against four army groups of the
Central Powers, from north to south, in
the following order: Linsingen, Arch-
duke Josef Ferdinand, Bothmer, and
Pflanzer-Baltin. On four lines of attack
the offensive was put into motion. The
Russians proposed to put alongside the
victorious Galician "break-through bat-
tle" of the Central Powers in 1915 a
similar success on a far wider front.
General Brusiloff has no smaller ambi-
tion than to achieve for Russia what the
Galician battle and the subsequent Polish
campaign did not achieve for the Teu-
tonic allies.

In powerful frontal attacks, with a
total disregard for sacrifices in human
material and often a senseless waste of

812

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

munitions, the right wing of
the far-flung Russian attack-
ing line succeeded in occupy-
ing the Volhynian fortress
triangle and in pushing ahead
beyond Lutsk and from Dub-
no, in a northerly direction,
against the railway Kovel-
Chelm-Lublin, as well as in a
westerly and southwesterly
direction against Lemberg.

Simultaneously the Russian
centre drove against South-
eastern Galicia, against Tar-
nopol, and the Tarnopol-Lem-
berg railway, and further
south against Buczacz and
Stanislau and against the
Carpathian passes that lead
to the Hungarian plain.

The extreme left wing was
directed agaiiast the Buko-
wina, with Czernowitz the
chief aim, and one eye cast
toward Rumania, whose
border is the southeastern
" fence " of this theatre of
operations. The military sit-
uation then took the follow-
ing course:

1. Volhynian Front: The
Russian forces advancing
from Lutsk in a northwest-
erly direction against Kovel
were checked on both banks
of the Styr between the
Lutsk-Kovel railway and the
Kolki-Torya sector as well as
on the Sokul-Kolki line, by
the army of General von
Linsingen.

To the southwest of Lutsk
the Austro-Hvmgarian army
under Archduke Josef Ferdinand hurled
itself against the advancing Russians at
Gorochow, not far from Vladimir Vol-
ynski.

2. Galician Front: On the Stripa the
army of the Bavarian General, Count von
Bothmer, rendered successful resistance.
Here the Russian attempt to break
through failed in the same manner as
had the effort on the Volhynian front.
All Russian attacks near Przemloka, in
the region of Buczacz, were beaten off.

0 WtSZ.NlC

( PRtPET MARSH

VLODAVA

BATTLE LINE ON RUSSIAN FRONT, JULY 15, 1916

After the steam roller's initial suc-
cesses in overrunning the enemy's first
lines, the " break-through battle " on the
Russian right wing and in the centre
was brought to a standstill. For decisive
successes could be achieved only when, as
in the case of the Galician " break-
through battle," the initial fury and driv-
ing power did not slacken for a moment.
As soon as they weakened the materiali-
zation of the aims was forthwith made
doubtful. Thereupon the greatest mobil-

WAR EVENTS FROM TWO VIEWPOINTS

813

WHOLE LENGTH OF THE RUSSIAN FRONT FROM RIGA TO THE RUMANIAN BORDER

814

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ity of action was observed on the Russian
left wing, on the Bukowina front, to
which the original basic plan had as-
signed the least important military role.

Czernowitz, the Bukowina capital, was
occupied. The possession of this city is
of no great strategic significance. Orig-
inally we were told that the Russian ob-
jective on the Bukowina border was the
Hungarian plain. Then the " Hungarian
Plain " suddenly disappeared from the
strategical calculations. The new asser-
tion was that the advance of the Russian
left wing was directed against the rail-
way Czernowitz-Stanislau-Styj, and fur-
ther along the Dniester against Lemberg.
But in the meantime the army of Count
von Bothmer had brought the offensive
of the Russian centre at Buczacz, on the
Galician frontier, to a standstill.

Lemberg, too, was soon eliminated
from the calculations. Again the direc-
tion of the Russian advance was changed.
The masses were directed southward.
Radautz and Suczawa were taken, and
the Russian lines were then extended
along the Rumanian frontier as far as
Kimpolung to the west. Now it is as-
serted that the Russians will from this
line break through into the interior of
Hungary. The way leads across the
eastern Carpathians and through the
Kirlibaba Pass, where the Russians were
severely defeated last year when they
made their first attempt to force the
Carpathians.

The moment the great offensive had
been brought to a standstill on the Rus-
sian right wing, in Volhynia, and in the
centre, in Southern Galicia, the coher-
ence and unity of the operations were
shaken on the entire front; the offensive
of the left wing assumed the character
of a suddenly stopped dash, and the
danger arose that the whole front might
be " rolled up " by a Teuton counterof-
fensive, while there was also the menace
of a flanking • attack against the pro-
truding Russian wing. The idea of
reaching the Hungarian plain in a west-
ward advance from Czernowitz has long
since been abandoned. The occupation
of Kolomea gave rise to the theory that
the Russians proposed to reach Lemberg
by - way of Stanislau, advancing in a

northwesterly direction. On this road
the Russians must meet the army of
Count von Bothmer, and that has mean-
time happened. The Bavarian General,
however, did not await the enemy's ap-
proach, but seized the initiative by push-
ing his own army forward to meet the
opponent. From the region around
Buczacz, the base of his defense line,
which is directed against the east, he
advanced from the northeast across the
Dniester. At Tlumacz, thirty-six kilo-
meters north of Kolomea and thirty-two
kilometers southwest of Buczacz, he came
in contact with the Russians and at-
tacked them. On a front of sixteen kilo-
meters he penetrated the Russian posi-
tions to a depth of seven kilometers.

The tremendous superiority of the Rus-
sians in the Bukowina made it possible
to achieve a series of successes. But
even the westward advance, via Delatyn,
aimed probably against the eastern
passes of the Carpathians, and the north-
westward drive, against Stanislau and
probably against Lemberg, are already
out of all connection with the original
idea. The further development of the
offensive is determined solely by events
in Volhynia. There the army of General
von Linsingen and that of Archduke
Josef Ferdinand, to the south, have
drawn a wide bow around the Russian
right wing. This bow begins at Kolki,
runs along the Styr via Sokul, to Satuyze,
east of Vladimir Volynski, then south by
way of Lokatchi, Gorochow and Veres-
teschko to Radsivilow, east of Brody.

The importance of the operations on
the Volhynian battlefield is evident from
the tremendous efforts the Russians are
making to extend this offensive. The
attacks against the Pripet front of the
army under Prince Leopold of Bavaria
are to be taken less as an extension of
the attacks to the north than as an at-
tempt to make room north of Kovel for
the offensive on the southeast front.
Kovel is the converging point of two rail-
way lines. In this area there are raging
at present (middle of July) terrific bat-
tles on both banks of the Stokhod River.
General von Linsingen was compelled to
take his forces from the salient north
of Kolki on the Styr and to consolidate

C/)

WAR EVENTS FROM TWO VIEWPOINTS

815

them closer to Kovel. Strategic con-
siderations had necessitated this change
of front. The main task of the armies
of the Central Powers on the southeast-
ern front consists in counteracting and
frustrating the Russian attempt to break
through. The German and Austro-Hun-
garian lines are holding firm around
Baronowitchi as well as on the Volhynian
front to the north and west of Lutsk;
they are intact on the East Galician
front, on the Styr and on the Stripa, on
the line before Brody and in the region
of Buczacz. Even the advance of the
extreme Russian left wing in the Buko-
wina has not been able to cut the con-
nection between the various army groups
of the Central Powers.

The Anglo-French drive at the
western front, which began July 1, had
as the immediate objective of the left
wing, Bapaume, that of the centre,
Combles, and that of the right wing,
Peronne. Bapaume and Peronne are
important railway points, vital to the
German system of communication. They
are connected by a broad road which,
if seized by the Allies, would constitute
an extremely favorable base for a fur-
ther advance.

The offensive up to date has gone
through five phases, as follows:

1. — The successful first dash of the
Allies, carried out with a great initial
momentum and resulting in the over-
running of the German advanced posi-
tions and in the retirement by the
Teutons from their first-line positions
to those intervening between the first
and second lines.

2. — The beginning of the German
counterattacks.

3. — The continuation of the advance
by the French right wing in the di-
rection of Peronne; the halt in the of-
fensive on the British left wing against
Bapaume.

4. — The slackening of the advance on
the part of the French right wing and
the heavy fighting in the centre.

5. — The dissolution of the great of-
fensive— which originally was planned
to be pushed by frontal attacks on the
whole line on both wings and in the

centre — into separate combats on local
battlefields.

The British in their first onrush took
several villages and other portions of
the line from Serre to Mametz. They
advanced as far as Montauban. The
Germans rendered stubborn resistance
on the first day in the position of Fri-
court, but this position soon became en-
tirely untenable. The main attack of
the French was directed against Curlu,
not far from the Peronne-Combles sec-
tor. The village fell to the French, as
did the village of Frise, to the south-
east, and the ^vood of Mereaucourt,
northwest of the German line.

On the left flank of the British front,
between the Ancre brook and La
Boisselle, the offensive was soon brought
to a standstill. The British right and
the French left wings pushed back the
German lines beyond Thiepval and Ovil-
lers, as far as La Boisselle and thence
to the line Contalmaison-Montauban-
Hardecourt-Curlu. At that juncture the
offensive came to a stop in the centre
as well. Subsequently the further ^ad-
vance was confined to the French right
wing. Thus the 33-kilometer Anglo-
French front, from which the great of-
fensive had been launched, and which
was to drive the Germans out of North-
ern France and Belgium, had shrunk to
a line ' of seven kilometers, from south
of the Somme to Foucacourt.

Under the fury of the tremendous hos-
tile artillery fire the German troops on
the southern area of the Somme battle-
field were compelled to abandon their first
line of defense and the positions between
that and the second. The French ad-
vanced within a few kilometers of the
Peronne Railway, which runs along the
Somme, and crosses the river due south
of the city. In order to reach the next
objective, which is Peronne itself, the
French right wing must cross the Somme,
and there they must meet the second
main line of the German defense system.

The German counterattacks began on
the evening of the day the great offen-
sive was begun. They were directed
against Serre and Montauban, the posi-
tions taken by the British, and against
the French advanced positions on both

816

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New "York Times

banks of the Somme. They soon brought
the advance of the British left wing to a
standstill. They were extended from
Thiepval, in the British centre, as far as
La Boisselle, south of the Ancre Brook,
and from Mametz, on the right British
wing, down to Barleuz and Belloy-en-
Santerre, on the French front south and
west of the Somme (the river makes a
bend in that region) as well as around
Hardecourt aux Bois, west of the railroad
from Curlu to Combles.

The German counterattacks against the
centre of the allied line of attack isolated
the advance of the French right wing
against Peronne and determined the re-
gion where the decision must fall. The
decisive battle is now raging on the line
La Boisselle - Contalmaison - Montauban-
Hardecourt aux Bois.

The fate of the Russian offensive on
the southwestern front will be decided on
its right wing, that of the Anglo-French
offensive on the west front in the centre.
Both offensives have already lost their
unity of action.

The moment the advance is brought to
a standstill on a wide, separate sector of
the entire front, an offensive loses its
inherent military character and is dis-
solved into individual combats on sepa-
rate battlefields. The counterattacks in
such cases are always directed against
that sector of the hostile front which
" got stuck." In that sector the enemy
suffers the severest losses, and there the
counterattacking forces have the best op-
portunity to open the road for a general
counteroffensive.

If the great allied drive on the western
front was to affect the situation at Ver-
dun, that purpose has not been achieved.
The fact that the German attacks on the
French fortress have lost nothing of
their strength and effectiveness proves
that no troops have been withdrawn from
the Verdun front. The German Verdun
campaign is being continued in the same
old logical and systematic course. On
the western bank of the Meuse the
French forces continue to exhaust them-
selves in vain onslaughts against the
German positions. On the eastern bank

the inner centaine of forts already is the
objective of the German attacks. Fort
Vaux has fallen. The Thiaumont field
work, with Hill 321, the village of Fleury,
the detached works of Douaumont, all
have been taken by the Germans.

From the northeast the attackers con-
tinue to batter the inner ring o£ forts.
In a mighty onrush they debouched from
Fleury village and from the woods of
Vaux and Chapitre, and pushed ahead as
far as Sainte Fine Capelle. This chapel
lies immediately before Fort Souville,
which fronts the Cote de Belleville, the
last chain of hills separating the attack-
ers from the fortress proper. Fort Sou-
ville captured, the fate of Fort Tavannes
with its field work, La Laufee, is also
doomed.

The simultaneous " great offensives "
of the Allies in the west, southeast, and
south have thrown the Central Powers
on the defensive everywhere. The de-
fensive, viewed from the angle of the
hostile intentions, often is victory. Ul-
timate success is the more certain when
the defensive tactics control the mili-
tary situation and point the way to its
further development, thereby frustrat-
ing the enemy's plans even before the
counteroffensive has been put into full
operation. That is what is happening
today on the southeast front as well as
in the west. Thus, even on the defen-
sive, the initiative remains with the
Germans.

These battlefields today lie quite re-
mote from the great army road where
the decisive events are on the march.
The strategy of watchful waiting, to
which trench warfare, too, belongs, has
given way to actuality. In position
warfare, which had developed into
fortress warfare, the artillery spoke the
decisive word. In mobile warfare and
in the open field, artillery preparation
today also plays an important part. But
the infantry is even today still queen
of battles. The events of the month
past have put the crown back upon her
head. In that respect the great offen-
sive movements on all fronts of the
main theatres of war have followed the
example of the Verdun campaign. . :

TALES OF "THE TRADE"

[Submarine Adventures, Written From Official Reports in the Possession of the

British Admiralty]

By Rudyard Kipling

[Copyright, 1916, fcy Rudyard Kipling-]

THE TRADE

They bear, in place of classic names,

Letters and numbers on their skin.
They play their grisly blindfold games

In little boxes made of tm.

Sometimes they stalk the Zeppelin,
Sometimes they learn where mines are
laid

Or where the Baltic ice is thin.
That is the custom of " The Trade."

Few Prize Courts sit upon their claims.

They seldom tow their targets in.
They follow certain secret aims

Down under, far from strife or din.

When they are ready to begin
No flag is flown, no fuss is made

More than the shearing of a pin.
That is the custom of " The Trade."

The Scout's quadruple funnel flames

A mark from Sweden to the Swin,
The Cruiser's thundrous screw proclaims

Her comings out and goings in.

But only whiffs of paraffin
Or creamy rings that fizz and fade

Show where the one-eyed Death has

been.
That is the custom of " The Trade."

Their feats, their fortunes, and their
fames

Are hidden from their nearest kin;
No eager public backs or blames,

No journal prints the yarns they spin

(The Censor would not let it in!)
When they return from run or raid.

Unheard they work, unseen they win.
That is the custom of " The Trade."

Some Work in the Baltic

NO one knows how the title of
"The Trade" came to be ap-
plied to the submarine service.
Some say that the cruisers in-
vented it because they pretend that sub-
marine officers look like unwashed chauf-
feurs. Others think it sprang forth by
itself, which means that it was coined by
the lower deck, where they always have
the proper names for things. Whatever
the truth, the submarine service is now
" The Trade," and if you ask them why
they will answer, " What else could you
call it? The Trade's ' the trade/ of
course."

It is a close corporation, yet it recruits
its men and officers from every class that

uses the sea and engines, as well as from
many classes that never expected to deal
with either. It takes them; they disap-
pear for a while and return changed to
their very souls, for the Trade lives in a
world without precedents, of which no
generation has had any previous experi-
ence— a world still being made and en-
larged daily. It creates and settles its
own problems as it goes along, and if it
cannot help itself no one else can. So
the Trade lives in the dark and thinks
out inconceivable and impossible things
which it afterward puts into practice.

STAID ADMIRALTY RECORDS
It keeps books, too, as honest traders
should. They are almost as bald as

818

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ledgers and are written up, hour by hour,
on a little sliding table that pulls out
from beneath the commander's bunk. In
due time they go to my Lords of the Ad-
miralty, who presently circulate a few
carefully watered extracts for the con-
fidential information of the junior offi-
cers of the Trade, that these may see
what things are done, and how. The
juniors read, but laugh. They have heard
the stories, with all the flaming detail
and much of the language, either from a
chief actor while they perched deferen-
tially on the edge of a messroom fender,
or from his subordinate, in which case
they were not so deferential, or from
some returned member of the crew pres-
ent on the occasion, who, between half-
shut teeth at the wheel, jerks out what
really happened. There is very little
going on in the Trade that the Trade
does not know within a reasonable time.
But the outside world must wait until
my Lords of the Admiralty release the
records. Some of them have been re-
leased now.

A TALE OF THE BALTIC

Let us take, almost at random, an epi-
sode in the life of his Majesty's subma-
rine E-9. It is true that she was com-
manded by Commander Max Horton, but
the utter impersonality of the tale makes
it as though the boat herself spoke. Some
time ago the E-9 was in the Baltic, in
the deeps of Winter, where she used to
be taken to her hunting grounds by an
ice breaker.

Obviously, a submarine cannot use her
sensitive nose to smash heavy ice with,
so the broad-beamed pushing chaperon
comes along to see her clear of the thick
harbor and shore ice. In the open sea,
apparently, she is left to her own de-
vices. In company of the ice breaker,
then, E-9 "proceeded" (neither in the
senior nor in the junior service does any
one officially " go " anywhere) to " a cer-
tain position." Here — it is not stated in
the book, but the Trade knows every
aching, single detail of what is left out-
she spent a certain time in testing ar-
rangements and apparatus, which may or
may not work properly, immersed in a
mixture of block ice and dirty ice cream
in a temperature well toward zero.

This is a pleasant job, made the more
delightful by the knowledge that if you
slip off the superstructure the deadly
Baltic chill will stop your heart long
before even your heavy clothes can drown
you. Hence (and this is not in the book,
either) the remark of the highly trained
sailorman in these latitudes who, on be-
ing told by his superior officer in the
execution of his duty to go to hell, did
insubordinately and enviously reply,
"D'you think I'd be here if I could? "
Whereby he caused the entire personnel,
beginning with the commander, to say,
"Amen," or words to that effect.

BAGGING A DESTROYER

E-9 evidently made things work. Next
day she reports : " As circumstances were
favorable, decided to attempt to bag a
destroyer."

Her " certain position " must have been
near a well-used destroyer run, for short-
ly afterward she sees three of them, but
too far off to attack, and later, as the
light is failing, a fourth destroyer, to-
ward which she manoeuvres. " Depth
keeping," she notes, " very difficult, ow-
ing to heavy swell."

An observation balloon on a gusty day
is almost as stable as a submarine
" pumping " in a heavy swell, and, since
the Baltic is shallow, the submarine
runs the chance of being let down with
a whack on the bottom. None the less,
E-9 works her way to within 600 yards
of the quarry, fires, and waits just long
enough to be sure that her torpedo is
running straight and that the destroyer
is holding her course. Then she " dips
to avoid detection." The rest is deadly
simple: "At the correct moment after
firing, forty-five seconds to fifty seconds,
heard the unmistakable noise of torpedo
detonating." Four minutes later she
rose and "found destroyer had disap-
peared." Then, for reasons probably
connected with other destroyers, who,
too, may have heard that unmistakable
sound, she goes to bed below in the chill
dark till it is time to turn homeward.

FIGHTING BALTIC ICE

When she rose she met storm from
the north and logged it accordingly.
" Spray froze as it struck, and bridge be-

TALES OF "THE TRADE

819

came a mass of ice. Experienced con-
siderable difficulty in keeping the con-
ning tower hatch free from ice. Found
it necessary to keep a man continuously
employed on this work. Bridge screen
immovable; ice six inches thick on it.
Telegraph frozen." In this state she
forges ahead till midnight, and any one
who pleases can imagine the thoughts of
the continuous employe scraping and
hammering round the hatch, as well as
the delight of his friends below when the
ice-slush spattered down the conning
tower. At last she considered it " ad-
visable to free the boat of ice; so went
below."

In the senior service the two words
"as requisite" cover everything that need
not be talked about. E-9 next day " pro-
ceeded as requisite " through a series of
snowstorms and recurring deposits of ice
on the bridge till she got in touch with
her friend the ice-breaker; and in her
company plowed and rooted her way
back to the work we know. There is
nothing to show that it was a near thing
for E-9, but somehow one has the idea
that the ice-breaker did not arrive any
too soon for E-9's comfort and progress.
(But what happens in the Baltic when
the ice-breaker does not arrive?)

That was in Winter. -In Summer quite
the other way. E-9 had to go to bed by
day very often under the long-lasting
northern light when the Baltic is as
smooth as a carpet, and one cannot get
within a mile and a half of anything with
eyes in its head, without being put down.

A DIVE FOR LIFE

There was one time when E-9, evi-
dently on information received, took up
" a certain position " and reported the sea
" glassy." She had to suffer in silence
while three heavily laden German ships
went by; for an attack would have given
away her position. Her reward came next
day when she sighted (the words run like
Marryat's) " enemy squadron coming up
fast from eastward, proceeding inshore
of us." There were two heavy battle-
ships with an escort of destroyers, and
E-9 turned to attack. She does not say
how she crept up in that smooth sea
within a quarter of a mile of the leading

ship, " a three-funnel ship of either the
Deutschland or Braunschweig class,"
but she managed it, and fired both bow
torpedoes at her.

" No. 1 torpedo was seen and heard to
strike her just before foremost funnel;
smoke and debris appeared to go as high
as masthead." That much E-9 saw be-
fore one of the guardian destroyers ran
at her. " So," says she, " observing her,
I took my periscope off the battleship."
This was excusable, as the destroyer was
coming up with intent to kill, and E-9 had
to flood her tanks and get down quickly.
Even so, the destroyer only just missed
her, and she struck bottom in forty-three
feet. " But," says E-9, who, if she could
not see, kept her ears open, " at the cor-
rect interval (the forty- five or fifty sec-
onds mentioned in the previous case) the
second torpedo was heard to explode,
though not actually seen." E-9 came up
twenty minutes later to make sure. The
destroyer was waiting for her, a couple
of hundred yards away, and again E-9
dipped for her life, but " just had time to
see one large vessel approximately four
or five miles away."

MOMENTS OF SUSPENSE

Putting courage aside, think for a mo-
ment of the mere drill of it all — that last
dive for that attack on the chosen battle-
ship; the eye at the periscope watching
" No. 1 torpedo " get home ; the rush of
the vengeful destroyer ; the instant orders
for flooding everything; the swift descent
which had to be arranged for, with full
knowledge of the shallow sea floors wait-
ing below, and a guess at the course that
might be taken by the seeking bows
above, for, assuming a destroyer to draw
fifteen feet and a submarine on the bot-
tom to stand twenty-five feet to the top
of her conning tower, there is not much
clearance in forty-three feet salt water,
specially if the boat jumps when she
touches bottom.

And, through all these and half a hun-
dred other simultaneous considerations,
imagine the trained minds below, count-
ing, as only torpedomen can count, the
run of the merciless seconds that should
tell when that second shot arrived. Then
" at the correct interval," as laid down in

820

CURRENT HISTORY: A. Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the table of distances, the boom and the
jar of No. 2 torpedo, the relief, the ex-
haled breath, and untightened lips; the
impatient waiting for a second peep, and
when that had been taken and the eye at
the periscope had reported one little nig-
ger boy in place of two on the waters,
perhaps cigarettes, &c., while the destroy-
er sickled about at a venture overhead.

Certainly, they give men rewards for
doing such things, but what reward can
there be in any gift of Kings or peoples
to match the enduring satisfaction of
having done them, not alone, but with
and through and by trusty and proved
companions?

ANOTHER BALTIC BOAT

E-l, also a Baltic boat, F. N. Laurence
her commander, had her experience, too.
She went out one Summer day, and late
— too late — in the evening sighted three
transports. The first she hit. While she
was arranging for the second the third
inconsiderately tried to ram her before
her sights were on. So it was necessary
to go down at once and waste whole
minutes of the precious scanting light.
When she rose the stricken ship was
sinking, and shortly afterward blew up.
The other two were patrolling near by.
It would have been a fair chance in day-
light, but the darkness defeated her, and
she had to give up the attack.

It was E-l which during thick weather

came across a squadron of battle cruisers
and got in on a flanking ship — probably
the Moltke. The destroyers were very
much on the alert, and she had to dive at
once to avoid one, which only missed her
by a few feet. Then the fog shut down
and stopped further developments. Thus
do time and chance come to every man.

The Trade has many stories, too, of
watching patrols, when a boat must see
chance after chance go by under her
nose and write — merely write what she
has seen. Naturally they do not appear
in any accessible records. Nor, which is
a pity, do the authorities release the rec-
ords of glorious failures, when every-
thing goes wrong; when torpedoes break
surface and squatter like ducks; or ar-
rive full square, with a clang and biirst
of white water, and — fail to explode;
when the devil is in charge of all the
motors, and clutches develop play that
would scare a shoregoing mechanic bald;
when batteries begin to give off death
instead of power, and, atop of all, ice or
wreckage of the strewn seas racks and
wrenches the hull till the whole leaking
bag of tricks limps home on six missing
cylinders and one ditto propeller, plus
the indomitable will of the red-eyed,
husky scarecrows in charge.

There might be worse things in this
world for decent people to read than
such records.

II.

Under the Sea of Marmora

war is like an iceberg. We, the
public, only see an eighth of it
above water. The rest is out of
sight, and, as with the berg, one guesses
its extent by great blocks that break off
and shoot up to the surface from some
underlying and outrunning spur a quarter
of a mile away, so with this war sudden
tales come to light which reveal un-
suspected activities in unexpected quar-
ters.

One takes it for granted that such
things are always going on somewhere,
but the actual emergence of the record
is always astonishing.

Once upon a time there were certain
E-type boats who worked the Sea of
Marmora with thoroughness and human-
ity, for the two in English hands are com-
patible. The roads to their hunting
grounds were strewn with peril, the
waters they inhabited were full of eyes
that gave them no rest, and what they
lost or expended in wear and tear of the
chase could not be made good till they
had run the gauntlet to their base again.

The full tale of their improvisations
will probably never come to light, though
fragments can be picked up at intervals
in proper places as the men concerned

TALES OF "THE TRADE

821

come and go. The Admiralty gives only
the bones, but those are not as dry as the
boat's official story.

IN THE DARDANELLES

When the E-14, Lieut. Commander E.
Courtney-Boyle, went to her work in the
Sea of Marmora, she, like her sister,
proceeded on her gas engine up the Dar-
danelles, and a gas engine by night be-
tween steep cliffs has been described by
the lower deck as a full brass band in
a railway cutting. So a fort picked her
up with a searchlight and missed her
with artillery. She dived under the
mine field that guarded the strait, and
when she rose at dawn in the narrowest
part of the channel, which is about one
mile and a half across, all the forts fired
at her.

The water, too, was thick with steam-
boat patrols, out of which E"-14 selected
a Turkish gunboat and gave her a tor-
pedo. She had just time to see a great
column of water shoot as high as the
gunboat's mast, when she had to dip
again, as " the men in a small steamboat
were leaning over and trying to catch
hold of the top of my periscope."

This sentence, which might have come
out of a French exercise book, is all
that Lieut. Commander Courtney-Boyle
sees fit to tell, and that officer will
never understand why one taxpayer, at
least, demands his arrest after the war
till he shall give the full tale. Did he
sight the shadowy underline of a small
steamboat green through the deadlights,
or did she suddenly swim into his vision
from behind and obscure, without warn-
ing, his periscope with a single brown
clutching hand ? Was she alone or one of
a mob of splashing and shouting small
craft?

HOURS OF BLIND DEATH

He may well have been too busy to
note, for there were patrols all around
him, a mine field of curious design and
undefined area somewhere in front, and
steam trawlers vigorously sweeping for
him astern and ahead, and when E-14
had burrowed and bumped and scratched
through six hours of blind death, she
found the Sea of Marmora crawling with

craft and was kept down almost con-
tinuously, and grew hot and stuffy in
consequence.

Nor could she charge her batteries
in peace, so at the end of another hectic,
hunted day of starting them up and
breaking off and diving, which causes
bad temper, she decided to quit those in-
fested waters near the coast and charge
up somewhere off the traffic routes. This
was accomplished after a long, hot run
which did the motors no good.

She went back to her beat, where she
picked up three destroyers, convoying a
couple of troopships, but it was glassy
calm and the destroyers " came for me."

She got off a long-range torpedo at
one transport, and ducked before she
could judge the results. She apologizes
for this on the ground that one of her
periscopes had been damaged — not as one
would expect by gentlemen leaning out
of a little steamboat, but by some cas-
ualty, the shot calibre not specified, the
day before, " and so," says E-14, " I could
not risk my remaining one being bent."

DESTROYING A TRANSPORT

However, she heard a thud, and the
depth gauges", those great clock hands
on white-faced circles, flickered, which
is another sign of dreadful certainty
down under. When she rose again she
saw the destroyer convoying one burn-
ing transport to the nearest beach.

That afternoon she met a sister boat,
now gone to Valhalla, who told her that
she was almost out of torpedoes, and
they arranged a rendezvous for the next
day, but " before we could communicate
we had to dive, and I did not see her
again." There must be many such
greetings in "The Trade of Hy," the
name which submarines go by in the Brit-
ish Navy under all skies. Boat rising
beside boat at a point agreed upon for
the interchange of news and materials,
they talk and shout aloud, with the
speakers' eyes always on the horizon
and all hands standing by to dive, even
in the middle of a sentence.

E-14 kept to her job on the edge of the
procession of traffic. Patrol vessels
annoyed her to such extent that " as I
had not seen any transports lately I

822 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

decided to sink a patrol ship, as they
were always firing on me." So she tor-
pedoed a thing that looked like a mine
layer and must have been something of
that kidney, for it sank in less than a
minute.

A tramp steamer lumbering across the
dead flat sea was thoughtfully headed
back to Constantinople by firing rifles
ahead of her.

" Under fire the whole day," E-14 ob-
serves philosophically. The nature of
her work made this inevitable. She was
all day among patrols which kept her
down a good deal and made her draw
on her batteries, and when she rose to
charge, the watchers ashore burned oil
flares on the beach or made smokes
among the hills, according to the light
in either case, and there would be a gen-
eral rush of patrolling craft of all kinds
from steam launches to gunboats.

DID POPULAR THINGS

Nobody loves the Trade, though E-14
did several things which made her pop-
ular. She left off a string of very sur-
prised dhows (they were empty) in
charge of a tug, which promptly fled back
to Constantinople and stopped a couple of
steamers, full of refugees, also bound for
Constantinople, who were very pleased at
being allowed to proceed instead of being
Lusitaniaed as they had expected.

Another refugee boat, fleeing from
goodness knows what horror, she chased
into Rodosto Harbor, when, though she
could not see any troops, "they opened
a heavy rifle fire on us, hitting the boat
several times. So I went away and
chased two more small tramps, who re-
turned toward Constantinople."

Transports, of course, were fair game,
and, in spite of the necessity she was
under of not risking her remaining eye,
E-14 got a big one in a night of wind
and made another hurriedly beach itself,
which then opened fire on her, assisted
by the local population.

" I returned the fire and proceeded,"
says E-14. The diversion of returning
fire is one much appreciated by the lower
deck as furnishing a pleasant break in
what might otherwise be a monotonous
and odoriferous task. There is no drill

laid down for this evolution, but eti-
quette and custom prescribe that on
going up the hatch you shall not too
energetically prod the next man ahead
with the muzzle of your rifle. Likewise
when descending in quick time before the
hatch closes you are requested not to
jump directly on the head of the next
below. Otherwise you act as requisite
on your own initiative.

When she had used up all her tor-
pedoes, E-14 prepared to go home by
the way she had come. There was no
other, and she was chased toward Gal-
lipoli by a mixed pack, composed of a
gunboat, a torpedo boat, and a tug.

" They shepherded me to Gallipoli, one
on each side of me and one astern, evi-
dently expecting me to be caught by nets
there."

She walked very delicately for the next
eight hours or so, all down the strait
with underrunning strong tides, ducking
down when the fire from the forts was
too hot, verifying her position and the
position of the mine field, but always tak-
ing notes of every ship in sight till to-
ward tea time she saw our navy off the
entrance and " rose to the surface abeam
of a French battleship, who gave us a
rousing cheer."

DOINGS OF E-ll

She had been away as nearly as pos-
sible three weeks, and a kind destroyer
escorted her to the base, where we will
leave her for a moment while we con-
sider the performance of E-ll, Com-
mander M. E. Nasmith, in the same
waters at about the same season. E-ll
proceeds in the usual way to the usual
accompaniments of hostile destroyers up
the strait and meets the usual difficul-
ties about charging up. When she gets
through, her wireless naturally takes this
opportunity to give trouble, and E-ll is
left deaf and dumb somewhere in the
middle of the Sea of Marmora diving to
avoid hostile destroyers in the intervals
of trying to come at the fault in her
aerial.

Yet it is noteworthy that the language
of the Trade, though technical, is no
more emphatic or incandescent than that
of topside ships.

When she goes toward Constantinople

TALES OF "THE TRADE

823

she finds a Turkish torpedo gunboat off
the port and sinks her. She has her
periscope smashed by a six-pounder, re-
tires, fits a new top on the periscope,
and at 10:30 A. M. (they must have
needed it) pipes all hands to bathe.
Much refreshed, she gets her wireless
linked up at last and is able to tell the
authorities where she is and what she
is after.

At this point (it was off Rodosto) en-
ter a small steamer, which does not halt
when requested, and so is fired at with
several rounds from a rifle. The crew,
on being told to abandon her, tumble
into their boats with such haste that they
capsize two out of three. Fortunately,
says E-ll, they are abl£ to pick up every-
body.

LO! AN "AMERICAN"

You can imagine for yourself the con-
fusion alongside, the raffle of odds and
ends, floating out of boats and the gen-
eral parti-colored hurrah's nest all over
the bright, broken water. What you can-
not imagine is this : " An American gen-
tleman then appeared on the upper deck,
who informed us that his name was Silas
Q. Swing of The Chicago Sun, and that
he was pleased to make our acquaintance.
He then informed us that the steamer
was proceeding to Chanak, and he wasn't
sure if there were any stores aboard."

If anything could astonish the Trade
at this late date, one would almost fancy
that apparition of Silas Q. Swing's " very
happy to meet you, gentlemen," might
have started a rivet or two on E-ll's
placid skin, but she never quivered.

She kept a Lieutenant of the name of
Dontley Hughes, an expert in demolition
parties, and he went aboard the tramp
and reported any quantity of stores, a
six-inch gun, for instance, lashed across
the top of the forehatch, (Silas Q. Swing
must have been an unobservant journal-
ist,) a six-inch gun mounting in the
forehold, pedestals for twelve-pounders
thrown in as dunnage, the afterhold full
of six-inch projectiles, and a scattering
of other commodities. They put a demo-
lition charge well in among the six-inch
stuff and she took it all to the bottom in
a few minutes after being touched off.
Simultaneously with the sinking of the

vessel, E-ll goes on. Smoke was ob-
served to the eastward. It was a steamer
that had seen the explosion and was run-
ning for Rodosto. E-ll chased her till
she was tied up to a Rodosto pier, and
then torpedoed her where she lay, a
heavy-laden storeship, piled high with
packing cases.

The water was shallow here, and
though the E-ll bumped along the bot-
tom, which does not make for steadiness
of aim, she was forced to show a good
deal of her only periscope, and had it
dented, but not damaged, by rifle fire
from the beach.

As she moved out of Rodosto Bay she
saw a paddleboat, loaded with barbed
wire, which stopped on hail, but " as we-
ranged alongside her, attempted to ram
us, but failed, owing to our superior
speed." Then she ran for the beach, very
skillfully keeping her stern to E-ll, till
she drove ashore beneath some cliffs.

The demolition squad were just getting
to work when a party of horsemen ap-
peared on the cliffs above and opened a
hot fire on the conning tower. E-ll got
out, but, owing to the shoal water, it was
some time before she could get under
enough to fire a torpedo. The stern of
the stranded paddleboat is no great tar-
get, and the thing exploded on the beach.
Then she recharged her batteries and
proceeded slowly on the surface toward
Constantinople. All this was between
the ordinary office hours of 10 A. M. and
4 P. M.

IN CONSTANTINOPLE HARBOR

Her next day's work opens, as no pallid
writer of fiction dare begin, thus:

" Having dived unobserved into Con-
stantinople, I observed," &c.

Her observations were rather ham-
pered by cross tide, mud, and currents,
as well as the vagaries of one of her
own torpedoes, which turned upside down
and ran about promiscuously. It hit
something at last, and so did another shot
that she fired. But the waters by Con-
stantinople Arsenal are not healthy to
linger in after one has scared the whole
seafront, so "I turned to go out."

Matters were little better below. E-ll
in her perilous passage might have been
a lady of the harem tied up in a sack

824 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

and thrown into the Bosporus. She
grounded heavily, she bounced up thirty
feet, was headed down again by a ma-
noeuvre easier to shudder over than to
describe, and when she came to rest on
the bottom found herself being swiveled
right around the compass.

They watched the compass with much
interest: "It was concluded, therefore,
that the vessel (E-ll is one of the few
who speak of themselves as vessels as
well as boats) was resting on the shoal
under Leander Tower and was being
turned around by the current."

So they corrected her, started the mo-
tors, and bumped gently down into
eighty-five feet of water, with no more
knowledge than the lady in the sack
where any bump would land them, and
the next day was spent resting in the
centre of the Sea of Marmora.

That was their favorite preening perch
between operations, because it gave them
a chance to tidy the boat and bathe; and
they were cleanly people, both in their
methods and their persons. When they
boarded a craft and found nothing of
consequence they " parted with many ex-
pressions of good-will," and E-ll had a
good wash.

STEAMER TRIES TO RAM

She gives her reasons at length, for
going in and out of Constantinople and
the strait is all in the day's work, but
going dirty, you understand, is serious.
She had " of late noticed the atmosphere
in the boat becoming very oppressive, the
reason, doubtless, being that there was a
quantity of dirty linen aboard, and also a
scarcity of fresh water, a necessitated
limit being placed on the frequency of
personal washing."

Hence the centre of the Sea of Mar-
mora and all hands playing overside and
as much laundry work as time and the
service allowed.

One of the reasons, by the way, why
we shall be good friends with the Turk
again is that he has many of our ideas
about decency.

In due time E-ll went back to her
base. She had discovered a way of
using unspent torpedoes twice over,
which surprised the enemy, and she had

as nearly as possible been cut down by
a ship which she thought wa» running
away from her, instead of which she
made the discovery at 3,000 yards — the
stranger steamed straight at her. " The
enemy then witnessed a somewhat spec-
tacular dive at full speed from the sur-
face to twenty feet in as many seconds.
He then really did turn tail and was
seen no more."

Going through the strait, she ob-
served an empty troopship at anchor,
but reserved her torpedoes in the hope
of picking up some battleships lower
down. Not finding these in the Nar-
rows, she nosed her way back and sank
a trooper, afterward continuing her
journey down the strait.

Off Kilid Bahr something happened.
She got out of trim and had to be
fully flooded before she could be brought
to her required depth. It might have
been whirlpools under the water or other
things.

They tell a story of a boat which once
went mad in these very waters, and,
for no reason ascertainable from with-
in, plunged to deeps that contractors do
not allow for, rocketed up again like a
swordfish, and would doubtless have so
continued till she died, had not something
she had fouled dropped off and let her
recover her composure.

FOULING A MINE

An hour later: " I heard a noise
similar to grounding. Knowing this to
be impossible in the water in which the
boat then was, I came up to twenty feet
to investigate, and observed a large
mine, preceding the periscope at a dis-
tance of about twenty feet, which was
apparently hung up by its moorings to
the port hydroplane." The hydroplanes
are the fins at the bow and stem which
regulate submarines.

A diving mine weighs anything from
hundredweights to half tons. Sometimes
it explodes if you merely think about it.
At others you can batter it like an empty
sardine tin and it submits meekly. But
at no time is it meant to wear on a
hydroplane.

They dared not come up to unhitch
it, owing to the batteries ashore, so

TALES OF " THE TRADE "

825

they pushed the dim shape ahead of
them until they got outside of Kum
Kale.

They went full astern and emptied the
after tanks, which brought the bows
down, and in this posture rose to the

surface, " when the rush of waters from
the screws, together with the sternway
gathered, allowed the mine to fall clear
of the vessel."

How a fool, said Dr. Johnson, would
have tried to describe that.

in.
The Unkultured Deeds of E-14

NOW we will take up the E-14 on vari-
ous work, either alone or as the
flagship of a squadron composed of
herself and Lieut. Commander N. A.
Smith's boat, the E-ll. Hers was a busy
midsummer, and she came to be intimate
with all sorts of craft, such as a two-fun-
neled gunboat off Sar Kioi, who " fired at
us and missed as usual " ; hospital ships
going back and forth unmolested to Con-
stantinople, " the gunboat which fired at
me on Sunday," and other old friends
afloat and ashore.

When the crew of a Turkish brigantine
full of stores got into their boats by re-
quest and then " all stood up and cursed
us," the E-14 did not lose her temper,
even though it was too rough to lie along-
side the abandoned ship. She told Acting
Lieutenant R. W. Lawrence of the Royal
Naval Reserve to swim off to her, which
he did, and, after " a cursory search " —
who can be expected to Sherlock Holmes
for hours with nothing on? — set fire to
her, "with the aid of her own matches
and paraffin oil."

Then the E-14 had a brawl with a
steamer with a yellow funnel with a blue
top and a black band, lying at her pier
among the dhows. The shore took a hand
in the game with small guns and rifles,
and, as the E-14 manoeuvred about the
roadstead, " as requisite," there was a
sudden, unaccountable explosion which
strained her very badly.

" I think," she muses, " I must have
caught the moorings of a mine with my
tail as I was turning and exploded it.
It is possible it might have been a big
shell bursting over us, but I think this
unlikely, as we were submerged thirty
feet at the time."

She is always a philosophical boat,
anxious to arrive at the reason of facts,
and when the game is against her she
admits it freely.

There was a nondescript craft of a
few hundred tons, who " at a distance
did not look very warlike," but when
chased suddenly played a couple of six-
pounders and "got off two dozen rounds
at us before we were under. Some of
them were only about twenty yards off."
And when a wily steamer, after sidling
along shore, lay up in front of a town,
she became " indistinguishable from the
houses," and so was safe, because we do
not Lowestrafe open towns.

Sailing dhows full of grain had to be
destroyed. At one rendezvous, while
awaiting the E-ll, the E-14 dealt with
three such cases and then "towed the
crews inshore and gave them biscuits,
beef, and rum and water, as they were
rather wet." Passenger steamers were
allowed to proceed because they " were
full of people of both sexes," which is an
unkultured way of doing business.

TWO HEADS IN THE WATER
An empty dhow is passed, which the
E-14 was going to leave alone, but it
occurs to her that the boat looks " rather
deserted," and she fancies she sees two
heads in the water. So she goes back
half a mile, picks up a couple of badly
exhausted men, frightened out of their
wits, gives them food and drink, and puts
them aboard their property.

Crews that jump overboard have to
be picked up even if, as happened in one
case, there are twenty of them and one
of them is a German bank manager tak-
ing a quantity of money to a Chanak
bank. Hospital ships are carefully

826 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

looked over as they come and go, and
are left to their own devices, but they
are rather a nuisance, because they force
the E-14 and others to dive for them when
engaged in stalking warrantable game.
There were a good many hospital ships,
and so far as we can make out, they all
played fair.

The E-14 boarded one and reported
everything satisfactory. A layman can-
not tell from the reports which of the
duties demanded the most work, whether
the continuous clearing out of transports,
dhows, and sailing ships, generally found
close to a well-gunned and attentive
beach, or the equally continuous attacks
on armed vessels of every kind. What-
ever else might be going on, there was
always the problem how to arrange for
the crews of sunken ships. If a dhow
has no small boats and you cannot find
one handy, you have to take the crew
aboard, where they are horribly in the
way and add to the oppressiveness of
the atmosphere, like " nine people, in-
cluding two very old men," whom the
E-14 made honorary members of her
mess for several hours till she could put
them ashore after dark.

Oddly enough she " could not get any-
thing out of them." Imagine nine be-
wildered Moslems suddenly decanted into
the reeking, clamorous bowels of a fabric
obviously built by Shaitan himself and
surrounded by — but our people are peo-
ple of the Book and not dog-eating Kaf-
firs, and I will wager a great deal that
that little company went ashore in bet-
ter health and stomach than when they
were passed down the conning tower
hatch.

AMPHIBIOUS BATTLES

Then there were queer amphibious bat-
tles with troops, who had to be shelled
as they marched toward Gallipoli along
the coast roads. The E-14 went out with
the E-ll on this job early .one morning,
each boat taking her chosen section of
landscape. Thrice the E-14 rose to fire,
thinking she saw the dust of feet, but
" each time it turned out to be bullocks."
When the shelling was ended " I think
the troops marching along that road must
have been delayed and a good many
killed." The Turks got up field guns in

the course of the afternoon — your true
believer never hurries — which outranged
both boats, and they left accordingly.
But one cannot rejoice over dead Mo-
hammedans, and I have never met any
one in the Trade who did.

Then the E-14 went back to her base.
She had a hellish time among the Dar-
danelles nets, was of course fired at by
the forts, just missed a torpedo from
the beach, scraped a mine, and, when
she had time to investigate, found elec-
tric mine wires twisted around her pro-
pellers, and all her hull scraped and
scored with wire marks.

A NASTY ARTIFICER

But that again was only in the day's
work. The point she insisted upon was
that she had been for seventy days in
the Sea of Marmora, with no securer
base for refitting than the centre of the
same, and during all that while she had
not had any " engine room defect which
had not been put right by the engine
room staff of the boat." The commander
and third officer went sick for a while,
. the First Lieutenant got gastric en-
teritis and was in bed (if you could see
that bed ! ) " for the remainder of our stay
in the Sea of Marmora," but " this boat
has never been out of running order."
Credit is ascribed to "the excellence of
my chief engine room artificer, James
Hollier Hague, C. N. 227,715," whose
name is duly submitted to the authorities
" for your consideration for advancement
to the rank of warrant officer."

Seventy days of every conceivable
sort of risk, within and without, in a
boat which is all engine-room, except
where she is sick-bay; 12,000 miles cov-
ered since the last overhaul, and " never
out of running order," thanks to Mr.
Hague! Such artists as he are the
kind of engine-room artificers that com-
manders intrigue to get hold of — each
for his own boat — and when the tales are
told in the trade their names, like Abou
ben Adhem's, lead all the rest.

I do not know the exact line of de-
markation between engine room and
gunnery repairs, but I imagine it is faint
and fluid. The E-ll, for example, while
she was helping the E-14 to shell a

TALES OF "THE TRADE

827

beached steamer, smashed half her gun-
mounting, " a gun-layer being thrown
overboard and the gun nearly following
him." However, the mischief was re-
paired in the next twenty-four hours —
hours which, considering the very limited
deck space of a submarine, means that
all hands must have been moderately
busy. One hopes they had not to dive
often during the job.

THROUGH NET STAYS
But worse is to come. The E-2, Com-
mander D. Stocks, carried an externally
mounted gun which, while she was driv-
ing up the Dardanelles on business, got
hung up in the wires and stays of a
net. She saw them through her conning
tower scuttle at a depth eighty feet —
one wire hawser around the gun, an-
other around the conning tower, and so
on. There was a continuous crack of
small explosions overhead, * which she
thought were charges aimed by guard-
boats who watch the nets. She consid-
ered her position for awhile, backed,
got up speed, forged ahead and shore
through the whole affair in one wild
surge. Imagine the roof of a navigable
cottage after it had snapped telegraph
lines with its chimney, and you will get
a small idea of what happens to the
hull of a submarine when she uses her
gun to break wire hawsers with.

The E-2 was a wet, strained, and un-
comfortable boat for the rest of her
cruise. She sank steamers, burned
dhows, was worried by torpedo boats and
hunted by Hun planes, hit bottom freely,
and frequently silenced forts that fired
at her from lonely beaches, warned vil-
lages who might have joined in the game
that they had better keep to farming,
shelled railway lines and stations, would
have shelled a pier, but found there was
a hospital built at one end of it, " so
could not bombard"; came upon dhows
crowded with " female refugees," which
she " allowed to proceed," and was pre-
sented with fouls in return. But through
it all her chief preoccupation was that
racked and strained gun and mounting.

When there was nothing else doing she
reports shortly that she " worked on the
gun." As a philosopher of the lower deck

put it, " It isn't what you know that

matters; it's what you have to do."

In other words, worry, not work, kills.
The E-2 gun did its best to knock the
heart out of them all. She had to shift
the wretched thing twice; once because
the bolts that held it down were smashed,
(the wire hawser must have pretty well
pulled it off its seat,) and again because
the hull beneath it leaked on pressure.
She went down to make sure of it, but
she drilled and tapped and adjusted till
in a short time the gun worked again and
killed steamers as it should.

WHOLE BOAT LEAKED

Meanwhile the whole boat leaked. All
the plates under the old gun position for-
ward leaked. She leaked aft through
damaged hydroplane guards, and on her
way home they had to keep the water
down by hand pumps while she was div-
ing through nets. Where she did not leak
outside she leaked internally, tank leak-
ing into tank, so that the petrol got into'
the main fresh water supply and the men
had to be put on an allowance. The last
pint was served out when she was in the
narrowest part of the Narrows, a place
where one's mouth may well go dry.

Of a sudden here, for the moment, the
records end. I have been at some pains not
to pick and choose among them. So far
from doctoring or heightening any of the
incidents, I have rather understated them,
but I hope I have made it clear that
through all the haste and fury of these
multiplied actions, when life and death
and destruction turned on the twitch of a
finger, not one life of any noncombatant
was wittingly taken. They were carefully
picked up or picked out, taken below,
transferred to boats and dispatched, or
personally conducted in intervals of busi-
ness, to a safe, unexploding beach. Some-
times they part from their chaperons
" with many expressions of good-will."
At others they seem greatly relieved and
rather surprised at not being knocked on
the head, after the custom of their allies.
But the boats, with a hundred things on
their minds, no more take credit for their
humanity than their commanders explain
feats for which they won their respective
decorations.

The DeutschlancPs Achievement

Story of the First Submarine Trader and Its Voyage Across

the Atlantic

THE safe arrival at Baltimore on
July 9 of the Deutschland, a Ger-
man undersea vessel built wholly
for purposes of commerce, fur-
nished the most dramatic surprise of the
month. Like the episode of the Appam, it
had in it the thrill of romance, appealing
powerfully to the imagination. The peril-
ous feat of this new and peaceful type
of submarine — its passage through the
North Sea and the English Channel, be-
neath the very keels of the warships of
the enemy, its successful journey with-
out escort across the Atlantic in sixteen
days — appeals to Americans as a greater
triumph than any of the deeds of its
murderous prototype.

The coming of the Deutschland un-
doubtedly marks a new epoch in naviga-
tion, for this is the first commercial sub-
marine in history, and it is to be followed
at once by others, which apparently will
be able to keep up a more or less regu-
lar service between Germany and the
United States during the remainder of
the war. It also raises a number of new
problems in international law.

The Deutschland is 300 feet long, 30
wide, and carries 1,000 tons of cargo and
a crew of twenty-nine men. It cost
$500,000 to build, and its cargo of dye-
stuffs on the first trip is said to have
paid for the whole enterprise.

CAPTAIN KOENIG'S STATEMENT
Captain Paul Koenig, commander of
the novel craft, issued an official state-
ment, giving the following facts:

The submarine Deutschland, which I have
the honor to command, is the first of several
submaFines built to the order of the Deutsche
Ozean Rhederei G. M. B. H., Bremen. She
will be followed by the Bremen shortly.

The idea of the building of this submarine
emanated from Alfred Lohmann, then Pres-
ident of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.
He brought his idea in the Fall of last year
confidentially before a small circle of friends,
and the idea was taken up at once. A com-
pany was formed under the name of
" Deutsche Ozean Rhederei G. M. B. H.,"

and the Germaniawerft, Kiel, was intrusted
with the building of the submarines.

The Board of Directors is composed of Al-
fred Lohmann, President of the Board ;
Philipp Heineken, General Manager of the
Nord Lloyd, and Kommerzienrat P. M. Herr-
man, Manager of the Deutsche Bank. Carl
Stapelfeldt, Manager of the Nord Lloyd, h-as
taken over the management of the company.

We have brought a most valuable cargo of
dyestuffs to our American friends, dyestuffs
which have been so much needed for months
in America and which th« ruler of the seas
has not allowed the great American Repub-
lic to import. While England will not allow
anybody the same right on the ocean be-
cause she rules the waves, we have, by
means of the submarine, commenced to break
this rule.

Great Britain cannot, however, hinder
boats such as ours to go and come as we
please. Our trip passing Dover across the
ocean was an uneventful one. When danger
approached we went below the surface, and
here We are, safely in an American port,
ready to return in due course.

I am not in a position to give you full
details regarding our trip across the ocean,
in view of our enemies. Our boat has a dis-
placement of about 2,000 tons and a speed
of more than fourteen knots. Needless to
say that we are quite unarmed and only a
peaceful merchantman. * * *

Our boats will carry across the Atlantic
the mails and save them from British inter-
ruption. We trust that the old friendly rela-
tionship with the United States, going back
to the days of Washington, when it was
Prussia who was the first to help America
in its fight for freedom from British rule,
will awake afresh in your beautiful and
powerful country.

The house flag of the Deutsche Ozean
Rhederei is the old Bremen flag — red and
white stripes, with the coat of arms of the
town, the key in the corner. This key is
the sign that we have opened the gates
which Great Britain tried to shut up on us
and the trade of the world. The gates which
we opened with this key will not be shut
again. Open, door to the. trade of the world
and freedom of the oceans and equal rights
to all nations on the oceans will be guar-
anteed by Germany's victory in this struggle
for our existence.

DEFYING THE ENEMY

Still more interesting are the details of
the voyage elicited from Captain Koenig

THE DEUTSCHLAND'S ACHIEVEMENT

829

in the course of conversation. In reply to
a question regarding the dodging of war-
ships he said :

"Was it fun? Sometimes, yes. Most
of it was fun in the English Channel:
There we lay for ten hours on the bottom,
snug and comfortable. Some of us slept
and some of us read, and most of us
listened to our graphophone playing a
beautiful song from ' Peer Gynt,' while
above us raged the destroyers and
cruisers that would have thought us the
very choicest of prey had they only
known what lay hidden there below them.
It was not a long ten hours; we drank
a little champagne and we ate and we
attended to the machinery. Always there
was much to do, and there was a satis-
faction in being just there.

" Always we saw the other ships first.
It is that way with submarines; their
eyes are better. But we had decided in
advance that everything should have a
wide berth. It seemedjwiser."

Nothing more vivid about the adven-
ture could be drawn from Koenig than
the detailing of those times when " we
just sank." As far as his words went,
that was all there was to it.» A vessel
would be sighted; the Deutschland was
quickly submerged; she would run along
under water for a time, and then she
would come up and open her hatches for
fresh air, while officers and men went
about their work, their rest, or their play.

ALL ENJOYED SUBMERGING

" Once each day we submerged as a
practice drill," he said, " and, besides,
we submerged, as I remember, five times
in the North Sea, six in the English
Channel, and three or four in the open
water.

"Yes"— and he laughed heartily—
"yes, each time there was a reason.
The longest we actually stayed under
was that ten hours in the English Chan-
nel, but we could stay four days. At
the end of that time our batteries would
be exhausted, and we would have to rise
to recharge them. Resting on the bottom,
we could stay just as long as we liked, at
least as long as our provisions held out.
During the entire trip we traveled a total
of ninety miles under water.

" So far as the physical effect on the
ship's company is concerned, we could
remain forever. We can submerge fifty
fathoms — 300 feet — but, as a matter of
fact, we never went nearly that deep,
and probably never shall. We all enjoyed
submerging. It was just like sinking into
a soft blue nest. We opened the port-
holes, and then through the glass we
could see the fishes and the formations of
the sea, and always we listen, listen,
listen.

" How do we listen? There are aboard
two microphones, and with them we were
able to hear the whistling of a buoy six
miles off when we were under water.
And just before we came up about thirty
miles from the Virginia Capes we were
able to hear the ringing of a bell buoy
that, too, was six miles from us. The
screw of a ship we could hear quite
plainly while it was yet a safe distance
from us. More than hearing it, we could
tell whether it was a cruiser or a
destroyer. It was quite fascinating to
listen to.

" We left Bremerhaven at noon on
June 18 just as quietly as possible. It
was not that we feared anything in par-
ticular, but that is always wise in these
days. No ship announces its going or
its coming. What Germany's enemies do
not know cannot help them. We didn't
submerge as we left.

" We proceeded quietly to Heligoland,
and there we stayed four days. No ship
proceeds all the way after starting. It
is too easy to calculate when she may
be expected at some given place. So we
lie in wait a while, and when we are
ready we go.

PLENTY OF FUEL

" We carried 180 tons of fuel oil. Of
that we have ninety-five tons left, more
than enough to take us back, and we shall
not ship more here. Then we carried
many tons of oxygen and twenty tons of
fresh water, of which we had ten left.

" We carried no ice. We had a great
abundance of provisions, all of it in
tins. There were tinned meats and
tinned vegetables and tinned fruits and
tinned fresh bread — in fact, we had
everything to eat that you Americans

830 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

eat, only it was tinned. We have much
food left, but it is well to have enough.

" After we got out of the North Sea
our voyage was uneventful, except for
those few times that we submerged.
No ship saw us, and, as no one knew our
destination when we started, we worried
not at all. True, the American Consul
at Bremen, William Thomas Fee, knew,
for he had approved our manifest, but
we knew he was to be trusted.

" So we just went along, making about
thirteen knots on the surface and doing
a little better than half of that under
water. We had no .sickness aboard,
except one of the crew, who was badly
sunburned and suffered quite a little.
The last time we submerged was as we
were nearing the Virginia Capes and we
saw an American boat approaching. We
thought it was a fruit boat, so we just
dipped under for the last time. The
men were always glad when we did
that — it made such smooth traveling.
The Deutschland scarcely rolls at all
under water."

HERR LOHMANN'S IDEA

Alfred Lohmann of Berlin, the man
who conceived and carried through this
novel enterprise, told an interviewer that
the Deutschland is only the first of a
fleet of submarine freighters, entirely
unarmed, and numerous enough to estab-
lish a weekly service eventually.

" I conceived the idea of breaking the
British blockade long ago," continued
Herr Lohmann, " but the project first
took definite shape last Autumn, when
I succeeded in convincing tlie capitalists
associated with me — the Deutsche Bank
and the Norddeutsche Lloyd — that the
war presumably would last another
twelve months. This was the hardest
part of my task. Once this was done, the
rest was easy, for our figures showed
that the boats would more than pay for
themselves in a single round trip.

" A company was immediately incor-
porated as the German Ocean Navigation
Company of Bremen, with a nominal
capital. Articles were filed on Nov. 8

and work was commenced on the first and
second boats. The Deutschland was com-
pleted some time ago, and after success-
ful trials in the Baltic started for Amer-
ica, following the usual peace route of
our Bremen and Hamburg steamships."

NEW SHIP'S LEGAL STATUS

The day after the arrival of the
Deutschland- the diplomatic representa-
tives of Great Britain and France filed
formal protests at Washington, holding
that the new craft was potentially a war-
ship, and that it should not be allowed to
sail from an American port. The State
Department, however, through naval ex-
perts and the Neutrality Board, investi-
gated the inner construction of the
Deutschland and pronounced it purely a
commercial vessel, unarmed, and inca-
pable of being fitted with torpedoes or
large guns. It was formally announced,
therefore, that the American Govern-
ment regarded the Deutschland as en-
titled to all the rights and privileges of a
merchant vessel flying the flag of a bel-
ligerent country in a neutral port. The
ruling is likely to have far-reaching ef-
fects, both in war and in peace. Naval
commanders of the Allies have orders to
fire upon submarines without warning.
Here is a submarine merchantman that
can legally claim all the benefits of the
rules of visit and search, yet can evade
its own legal obligations at pleasure. It
furnishes a new problem, not only for the
British Navy, but also for the customs of-
ficials of all countries.

At this writing a number of British
vessels are hovering about the mouth of
Chesapeake Bay — outside the three-mile
limit — bent upon sinking the intruder,
while Captain Koenig is calmly planning
to pass under them as easily as he passed
under the cruisers in the English Chan-
nel. As his craft can disappear in two
minutes and live four days without com-
ing up for air, he feels confident that he
can go back with a cargo of rubber and
nickel as easily as he came with one of
dyestuffs.

THE DEUTSCHLAND AND HER CAPTAIN

First Commercial Submarine in History, "Which Crossed the Atlantic
From Germany, Landing at Baltimore July 9 With a Cargo of Dyestuffs.

Captain Paul Koenig
(Photo by Central News Service)

GENERAL VON LINSINGEN

German Commander Who Helped to Repel General Brusiloff a Year

Ago, and Is Now In Turn Being Driven Back by Brusiloffs Armies

(Photo from Press Illustrating Co.)

Sequel of the Irish Revolt

Provisional Settlement of Home Rule — Death Sentence for

Sir Roger Casement

FTT1HE adoption of a provisional settle-
ment of the Irish question, at last
_L giving Ireland a separate Parlia-
ment, must be counted among the
fruits of the Dublin outbreak no less than
the tragic fate of the leaders and the
death sentence now resting upon Sir
Roger Casement.

Once more Lloyd George has solved a
problem before which the bravest might
quail. With the tactful co-operation of
Mr. Asquith he has worked out a tem-
porary plan to which he has won the con-
sent alike of Catholics and Protestants,
Nationalists and Unionists. Briefly, it
consists in creating a Parliament at Dub-
lin, made up of the present Irish mem-
bers of the English Parliament; the Dub-
lin body to have control of home Affairs,
but to have nothing to do with foreign
relations, the army or navy, or any mat-
ters relating to the war. This arrange-
ment is to last until one year after the
close of the European war, when the
whole problem may be taken up in the
light of further experience.

Six counties of Ulster are excluded
from this scheme by their own desire, but
Sir Edward Carson, the Ulster leader,
who two years ago armed his followers
to fight home rule with a civil war if
necessary, has now consented to sit with
the Nationalists in the Dublin Parlia-
ment. The same is true of another
Unionist leader, J. H. M. Campbell, At-
torney General for Ireland. On June 23
at Belfast a convention of Irish Nation-
alist delegates from the six excluded
Ulster counties, after listening to an im-
passioned speech by John Redmond, de-
clared for the acceptance of the plan by
a vote of 475 to 265. Ulster as a whole
has 690,816 Catholics, who constitute 43.7
per cent, of the population. The plan is
to include under home rule the three
counties of Donegal, Monaghan, and
Cavan, where the percentage 'is 78.7
Catholics to 21.3 non-Catholics, while the

six remaining counties, with a proportion
of 65.6 Protestant to 34.4 Catholic, will
form the Province of New Ulster and re-
main under the English Parliament.
THE CASEMENT TRIAL

The conviction and death sentence of
Sir Roger Casement on a charge of high
treason complete the tragic chapter of
the Irish rebellion. The trial was held in
the Lord Chief Justice's Court in Lon-
don, June 27-29, and aroused intense
interest. Lord Reading presided, assisted
by two- other Justices. The prisoner's
chief counsel was Alexander Sullivan, a
brilliant Irish barrister, who labored
under an intense emotional strain and
fainted in the midst of his peroration,
after a defense that won the admiration
of every one in the courtroom, including
the Chief Justice. Sir Roger was rep-
resented also by Artemus Jones and
Michael Francis Doyle of Philadelphia.

The prosecution for the Crown was
conducted by the Attorney General, Sir
Frederick Smith, who opened the case
with a narration of the prisoner's crim-
inal acts, his doings in Germany, his
attempt to organize Irish prisoners there
into a rebel brigade to invade Ireland,
his landing from a German submarine
on the Irish coast in May, and his con-
nection with a captured German auxiliary
cruiser loaded with rifles and ammuni-
tion. He held that the prisoner at the
bar, " blinded by hatred of this country,
a hatred as malignant in quality as it
was sudden in origin, had played his
game and lost, and the forfeit was now
claimed." A large amount of evidence
covering Casement's past life was offered
by the prosecution.

The defense introduced no evidence,
depending largely upon arguments in
support of the prisoner's motives, and
attacks on the ancient statute relating to
high treason. At one point Sir Roger
made a brief statement to the jury, re-
futing certain minor accusations reflect-

832 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ing upon his honor, and closing hotly
with the words: "I must state cate-
gorically that the rebellion was not made
in Germany, that the rebellion was not
directed from Germany, that it was not
inspired from Germany, and that not one
penny of German gold went to finance
it." He contended that he had acted
throughout with motives of pure patriot-
ism, and that if what he had done to
free Ireland was treason he had no re-
gret to die for it.

After an absence of fifty minutes the
jury brought in a verdict of guilty. The
eloquence of Sir Roger is evidenced in the
memorable speech which he delivered just
before hearing his sentence; a portion of
it .is printed below. The whole scene,
with Casement a sombre figure in black

Standing in the dark shadow of the dock,
and a filtering ray of sunlight shining
upon the three Justices before whom
he stood, was one to inspire a painter
of historic canvases. The voice of the
Chief Justice was firm, but his face was
pale, as he spoke the sentence ending in
the words " to be hanged by the neck
until you are dead."

The prisoner's attorneys at once took
an appeal to the Criminal Court of Ap-
peals, but the case was dismissed by
that court on July 18.

Daniel J. Bailey, the private soldier
who had landed with Casement, testified
that he had joined Casement's Irish bri-
gade with the object of returning to his
country and to the army. He was found
not guilty and was released.

Sir Roger Casement's Last Speech

SIR ROGER CASEMENT, leader of
the Irish revolt, was found guilty
of high treason on June 29 in the
Lord Chief Justice's Court, London. Be-
fore pronouncing sentence of death upon
him, Lord Chief Justice Reading asked
the prisoner what he had to 'say in his
defense. Sir Roger, producing a bundle
of papers, pronounced this memorable
address :

As I wish my words to reach a much wider
audience than I see before me here, I intend
to read all that I propose to say. What I
shall read now is something I wrote more
than twenty days ago. There is an objec-
tion possibly not good in law but surely good
on moral grounds against the application to
me here of this English statute, 565 years
old, that seeks to deprive an Irishman today
of life and honor, not for " adhering to the
King's enemies " but for adhering to his own
people. When this statute was passed, in
1351, what was the state of men's minds
on the question of a far higher allegiance—
that of man to God and His Kingdom? The
law of that day did not permit a man to
forsake his Church or deny his God save with
his life. The heretic then had the same doom
as the traitor. Today a man may forswear
God and His Heavenly Realm without fear or.
penalty, all earlier statutes having gone the
way of Nero's edicts against the Christians ;
but that constitutional phantom the King can
still dig up from the dungeons and torture
chambers, of the Dark Ages a law that takes
a man's life and limb for an exercise of
conscience.

Loyalty is a sentiment, not a law. It rests
on Love, not on restraint. The government
of Ireland by England rests on restraint and
not on law; and, since it demands no love, it
can evoke no loyalty. Judicial assassination
today is reserved only for one race of the
King's subjects, for Irishmen ; for those who
cannot forget their allegiance to the realm of
Ireland. What is the fundamental charter of
an Englishman's liberty? That he shall be
tried by his peers. With all respect I assert
that this court is to me, an Irishman, a
foreign court — this jury is for me, an Irish-
man, not a jury of my peers. It is patent
to every man of conscience that I have an
indefeasible right, if tried at all under this
statute of high treason, to be tried in Ireland,
before an Irish court, and by an Irish jury.
This court, this jury, the public opinion of
this country, England, cannot but be preju-
diced in varying degree against me, most of
all in time of war. From this court and its
jurisdiction I appeal to those I am alleged
to have wronged, and to those I am alleged
to have injured by my " evil example," and
claim that t^ey alone are competent to decide
my guilt or my innocence.

This is so fundamental a right, SO natural
a right, so obvious a right, that it is clear
the Crown were aware of it when they
brought me by force and by stealth from
Ireland to this country. It was not I who
landed in England, but the Crown who
dragged me here, away from my own coun-
try, to which I had returned with a price
upon my head, away from my own country-
men, whose loyalty is not in doubt, and safe
from the judgment of my peers, whose judg-
ment I do not shrink from. I admit no other

SIR ROGER CASEMENT'S LAST SPEECH

833

judgment but theirs. I accept no verdict save
at their hands.

I assert from this dock that I am being
tried here not because it is just, but because
it is unjust. My counsel has referred to the
Ulster Volunteer movement, and I will not
touch at length upon that ground, save only
to say that neither I nor any of the leaders
of the Irish Volunteers, who were founded in
Dublin in November, 1913, had quarrel with
the Ulster Volunteers as such, who were born
a year earlier. Our movement was not di-
rected against them, but against the men who
misused and misdirected the courage, the sin-
cerity, and the local patriotism of the men
of the North of Ireland. On the contrary, we
welcomed the coming of the Ulster Volunteers,
even while we deprecated the aims and in-
tentions of those Englishmen who sought to
pervert to an English party use— to the mean
purposes of their own bid for place and power
in England— the armed activities of simple
Irishmen. We aimed at winning the Ulster
Volunteers to the cause of a united Ireland—
we aimed at uniting all Irishmen in a natural
and national bond of cohesion based on mu-
tual self-respect. Our hope was a natural
one, and, if left to ourselves, not hard to
accomplish. If external influences of disin-
tegration would but leave us alone, we were
sure that nature itself must bring us to-
gether. It was not the Irish Volunteers who
broke the law, but a British party.

The Government had permitted the Ulster
Volunteers to be armed by Englishmen to
threaten not merely an English party in its
hold on office, but to threaten that party
through the lives and blood of Irishmen. Our
choice lay between submitting to foreign law-
lessness and resisting it, and we did not
hesitate. I for one was determined that Ire-
land wa« much more to me than empire, and
that if charity begins at home so must
loyalty.

Since arms were so necessary to make our
organization a reality and to give to the
minds of Irishmen menaced with the most
outrageous threats a sense of security, it was
j)ur bounden duty to get arms before all
else. I decided with this end in view to go
to America. If, as the right honorable gentle-
man, the present Attorney General, as-
serted in a speech at Manchester, National-
ists would neither fight for home rule nor
pay for it, it was our duty to show him
that we knew how to do both.

Then came the war. As Mr. Birrell said
in his evidence recently laid before the Com-
mission of Inquiry into the causes of the
late rebellion in Ireland, " The war upset
all our calculations." It upset mine no
less than Mr. Birrell's, and put an end to
my mission of peaceful effort in America.
War between Great Britain and Germany
meant, as I believed, ruin for all the hopes
we had founded on the enrollment of the
Irish Volunteers. I felt over there in
America that my first duty was to keep
Irishmen at home in the only army that
could safeguard our national existence. If
small nationalities were to be the pawns in
this game of embattled giants, I saw no rea-
son why Ireland should shed her blood in any
cause but her own, and if that be treason
beyond the seas I am not ashamed to avow it
or to answer for it here with my life.

And when we had the doctrine of Unionist
Icyalty at last, " Mausers and Kaisers and
any King you like," I felt I needed no other
warrant than that these words conveyed— to
go forth and do likewise. The difference be-
tween us was that the Unionist champions
chose a path which they felt would lead to
the Woolsack, while I went a road that I
knew must lead to the dock. And the event
proves that we were both right. But let me
say that I am prouder to stand here today
in the traitor's dock to answer this impeach-
ment than to fill the place of my accusers.
If there be no right of rebellion against a
state of things that no savage tribe would
endure without resistance, then am I sure
that it is better for men to fight and die
without right than to live in such a state
of right as this. Where all your rights be-
come only an accumulated wrong ; where men
must beg with bated breath for leave to sub-
sist in their own land, to think their own
thoughts, to sing their own songs, to garner
the fruit of their own labors— and even while
they beg to see these things inexorably with-
drawn from them — then surely it is a braver,
a saner, and a truer thing to be a rebel in
act and deed against such circumstances as
this than tamely to accept it as the natural
lot of men.

My Lord, I have done. Gentlemen of the
Jury, I wish to thank you for your verdict.
r hope you will not think that I made any
imputation upon your truthfulness or your
integrity when I said that this was not a
trial by my peers.

[The Judges then assumed the black caps.]

Passing of the Mexican Crisis

The Fight at Carrizal

[See map of Mexico opposite Page 815]

WAR with Mexico seemed almost
inevitable when the preceding
issue of CURRENT HISTORY
went to press. Since then the
affair has passed through a still more
acute stage, culminating in a bloody clash
at Carrizal on June 21; yet, thanks to
a sincere desire on both sides to avoid
war, the dangerous strain has been
lessened by mutual concessions, and at
present the grievances of both countries
seem in a fair way to reach a peaceful
adjustment.

When General Carranza undertook,
through General Trevino, to order the
American troops in Mexico not to move
east, west, or south, it was foreseen that
a clash would be almost inevitable if an
attempt were made to apply this to Gen-
eral Pershing's scouting parties. The
situation was epitomized in Pershing's
terse reply to Trevino's message: "I
take my orders," he said, " only from
my Government."

Early in the morning of June 21 the
collision came. Troops C and K of the
Tenth United States Cavalry, com-
manded by Captain Charles T. Boyd,
found it necessary to pass eastward
through Carrizal, sixty miles south of
the United States boundary. The town
was occupied by several hundred Car-
ranzistas under General Francisco Gomez.
Gomez refused to allow the Americans
to pass, and, after a parley, Captain
Boyd gave orders to advance, ignoring
the threats of the Mexicans. He did
not believe that they meant to fight.
The American force consisted of eighty
negroes, a white scout, and three white
officers — Captains Boyd and Morey, and
Lieutenant Adair. It was considerably
outnumbered by the Mexicans in full
view, who also had machine guns.

Late that evening Captain Morey, the
only surviving American officer, sat
hiding in a hole in the desert, wounded
and suffering from thirst, and wrote:

"When we were within 300 yards the
Mexicans opened fire, and a strong one,
before we fired a shot; then we opened
up. They did not run. To make a long
account short, after about an hour's fire
both troops had advanced, C Troop to
position of Mexican machine gun and
K Troop closing in slightly to the left.
We were very busy on the right, keeping
off a flank attack. A group of Mexicans
left town, went around our rear, and led
our horses off a-gallop."

General Gomez, the Mexican officer,
was among the first to fall. One of
General Funston's early reports stated
these details:

After the firing began Troop C advanced
250 yards by rushes toward the Mexican
position along an irrigating ditch, taking it
and capturing machine guns. Captain Boyd
was twice wounded, in the arm and shoulder,
before reaching the Mexican position, and
was killed at the irrigation ditch. Troop C
continued to advance through the town under
Lieutenant Adair. This was the last seen
of Troop C by these men. Troop K was out-
flanked and withdrew a short distance and
occupied an adobe house. Captain Morey
was at this time wounded in the shoulder.
This house was surrounded by Mexicans and
was under fire for some time.

After two hours of hard fighting the
surviving Americans scattered over the
desert, and most of them eventually got
back to the American lines. Twelve
Americans were killed, and twenty-four
were captured by the Mexicans and im-
prisoned in the penitentiary at Chi-
huahua. The Mexicans are said to have
lost forty-six killed and thirty-nine
wounded.

President Wilson at once demanded
the release of the prisoners. Without
this there could be no alternative but
war. Meanwhile Mexican ports were
blockaded by American warships, and all
supplies, merchandise, and munitions
were prevented from crossing the border.
All Americans living in Mexico were
warned to leave the country at once.
Secretary Lansing sent an identical note

PASSING OF THE MEXICAN CRISIS

835

to all the diplomatic representatives of
Central and South America, explaining
that, if the situation should eventuate in
war, it would not be through any desire
of the United States to intervene in
Mexican affairs, but solely for the pur-
pose of defending American territory
and citizens from further attacks by
bands of armed Mexicans. The leading
Latin-American Governments urged Mex-
ico to avoid war. Carranza issued a
foolish and discourteous " memorandum,"
reiterating his charge of bad faith, but
on June 28 he gave proof of a genuine
desire for peace by releasing the twenty-
four prisoners and sending them back
to the United States over the interna-
tional bridge at El Paso the next day.
Another crisis had been passed, and the
interchange of more amicable notes
(published in the following pages) paved
the way for another attempt to stop the
murderous border raids by means of a
joint patrol of the respective banks of
the Rio Grande.

Negotiations are under way at this
writing for the creation of a Mexican-
American commission to deal with the
problems confronting the two Govern-
ments. The preliminary steps have been
arranged informally by Frank L. Polk,
Acting Secretary of State, and Eliseo
Arredondo, Ambassador Designate of
the Mexican Government. The commis-
sion is expected to include Senor Arre-
dondo and Henry P. Fletcher, our re-
cently appointed Ambassador to Mexico.

Meanwhile there is no relaxation of
military precautions on the border. Pres-
ident Wilson's call for 100,000 men of
the National Guard has met with prompt
response, and the quotas from the va-
rious States are being distributed by
General Funston at strategic points
along the whole 1,500 miles of exposed
frontier. The War Department has de-
cided to recruit the militia regiments to
full war strength as fast as possible. If
the recruiting campaign succeeds it will
bring the total National Guard force up
to 160,000, which, with the regular army,
will make a border patrol of 210,000 men
on our side of the river. General Per-
shing's expedition, it is understood, will
be withdrawn from Mexican territory
within a reasonable time if conditions
continue to improve.

The embargo on food and clothing for
Mexico has been raised, and railway cars
are again crossing the line both ways,
but war munitions are withheld in the
absence of complete proof that they are
destined for the de facto Government.
This policy has been in force since last
March, and officials assert that since
April 1 no munitions have crossed the
border. The continuance of friendly re-
lations with Mexico depends, as in the
past, upon the ability and entire willing-
ness of General Carranza's followers to
do their part toward stopping the robber
raids across the border. If trouble breaks
out again we shall have an adequate
force on hand for any emergency.

Mexican and American Notes Regarding
the Carrizal Incident

E text of Secretary Lansing's tele-
gram of June 25 to the special repre-
sentative of the United States Gov-
ernment in Mexico City is as follows :

Washington, June 25, 1916.
James Linn Rodgers, Special Representative
of the United States Government, Mexico
City:

Mr. Arredondo yesterday delivered to this
Government the following communication:

" I am directed by my Government to in-
form your Excellency, with reference to the
Carrizal incident, that the Chief Executive.

through the Mexican War Department, gave
orders to General Jacinto B. Trevino not to
permit American forces from General Persh-
ing's column to advance further south or to
move either east or west from the points
where they are located, and to oppose new
incursions of American soldiers into Mexican
territory. These orders were brought by
General Trevino to the attention of General
Pershing, who acknowledged the receipt of
the communication relative thereto. On, the
22d inst., as your Excellency knows, an
American force moved eastward quite far
from its base, notwithstanding the above

836 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

orders, and was engaged by Mexican troops
at Carrizal, State of Chihuahua. As a result
of the encounter, several men on, both sides
were killed and wounded and seventeen
American soldiers were made prisoners."

You are hereby instructed to hand to the
Minister of Foreign Relations of the de facto
Government the following:

The Government of the United States can
put no other construction on the communica-
tion handed to the Secretary of State of the
United States on the 24th of June by Mr.
Arredondo, under instructions from your
Government, than that it Is a formal avowal
of - deliberately hostile action against the
forces of the United States now in Mexico,
and of purpose to attack them without provo-
cation whenever they move from their pres-
ent position in pursuance of the objects for
which they were sent there, notwithstanding
the fact that these objects involve no un-
friendly intention toward the Government or
people of Mexico, but are, on the contrary,
intended only to assist that Government in
protecting itself and the territory and people
of the United States against irresponsible
and insurgent bands of rebel marauders.

I am instructed, therefore, by my Govern-
ment to demand the immediate release of the
prisoners taken in the encounter at Carrizal,
together with any property of the United
States taken with them, and to inform you
that the Government of the United States
expects an early statement from your Gov-
ernment as to the course of action it wishes
the Government of the United States to un-
derstand it has determined upon, and that
it also expects that this statement be made
through the usual diplomatic channels, and
not through subordinate military command-
ers. LANSING.

The answer of the de facto Govern-
ment of Mexico to the foregoing tele-
gram and to the long note of the United
States dated June 20 (full text of which
appeared in July issue of CURRENT HIS-
TORY) averted the immediate danger of
war between the two countries by grant-
ing the American demand for the release
of the Carrizal prisoners. The full text,
as translated by the Mexican Embassy at
Washington, is as follows:

Washington, D. C., July 4, 191G.

Mr. Secretary:

I have the honor to transmit in continua-
tion the text of a note I have just received
from my Government with instructions to
present it to your Excellency:

" Mr. Secretary:

" Referring to the notes of June 20 and 25
last, I have the honor to say to your Excel-
lency that the immediate release of the Car-
rizal prisoners was a further proof of the
sincerity of the desire of this Government
to reach a pacific and satisfactory arrange-
ment of present difficulties. This Govern-

ment is anxious to solve the present conflict,
and it would be unjust if its attitude were
misinterpreted.

" It was also the Mexican Government
that earnestly suggested a plan for canton-
ments along the boundary line during the
conference of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso.
The Government is disposed now, as it has
always been, to seek an immediate solution
of the two points which constitute the true
causes of the conflict between the two coun-
tries, to wit: the American Government be-
lieves reasonably that the insecurity of its
frontier is a source of difficulty and the
Mexican Government on its part believes
that the presence of American troops on Mex-
ican territory, aside from being a trespass
on the sovereignty of Mexico, is the im-
mediate cause of the conflict. Therefore,
the withdrawal of American troops on one
hand and the protection of the frontier on the
other are the two essential problems the
solution of which must be the directing ob-
ject of the efforts of both Governments.

" The Mexican Government is willing to
consider in a quick and practical way, and
prompted by a spirit of concord, the remedies
which should be applied to the present situa-
tion.

" Several Latin- American countries have
offered their friendly mediation to the Mex-
ican Government, and the latter has accepted
it in/ principle. Therefore the Mexican Gov-
ernment only awaits information that the
Government of the United States would be
disposed to accept this mediation for the
purpose mentioned above or whether it is
still of the belief that the same results may
be attained by means of direct negotiations
between both Governments.

" In the meantime this Government pro-
poses to employ all efforts that may be at
its disposal to avoid the recurrence of new
incidents which may complicate and aggra-
vate the situation. At the same time it
hopes that the American Government on its
part may make use of all efforts to prevent
also new acts of its military and civil au-
thorities of the frontier that might cause new
complications.

" I avail myself of this opportunity to re-
iterate to your Excellency the assurances of
my most distinguished consideration.

" C. AGUILAR."

Having thus complied with higher instruc-
tions of my Government, it affords me pleas-
ure to reiterate to your Excellency the as-
surance of my highest consideration.

E. ARREDONDO.

President Wilson, through the State
Department, promptly answered this con-
ciliatory communication in a like spirit,
stating that the United States was pre-
pared for the immediate exchange of
views as to a practical plan for adjust-
ing the differences between the two
countries. The note follows:

TEXT OF MEXICAN AND AMERICAN NOTES

837

Washington, D. C., July 7, 1916.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your communication of July 4,
191G, in which you transcribe a note ad-
dressed to me by the Secretary of Foreign
Relations of your Government, and to re-
quest that you will transmit to him the
following reply:

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to ac-
knowledge the receipt of your courteous
note, transmitted to me by Senor Arredondo
on the 4th inst., in which you refer to my
notes of June 20 and June 25, and to assure
you of the sincere gratification of my Gov-
ernment at the frank statement of the dif-
ficulties which have unfortunately arisen
in our relations along the international
beundary, and the unreserved expression of
the desire of your Government to reach an
adjustment of these difficulties on a broad
and amicable basis.

The same spirit of friendship and of solici-
tude for the continuance of cordial relations
between, our two countries inspires my Gov-
ernment, which equally desires an imme-
diate solution of the matters of differences
which have long vexed both Governments.

It is especially pleasing to my Government

that the de facto Government of Mexico is
disposed to give quick as well as practical
consideration in a spirit of concord to the
remedies which may be applied to the exist-
ing conditions. Reciprocating the same de-
sire, the Government of the United States
is prepared immediately to exchange views
as to a practical plan to remove finally and
prevent a recurrence of the difficulties
which have been the source of the con-
troversy.

Accept, 'Mr. Secretary, the renewed as-
surances of my highest consideration. I am,
Sir, yours very sincerely,

ROBERT LANSING.

General Carranza has indicated his
willingness to co-operate on the lines
suggested, and at this writing informal
conferences between Senor Arredondo
and Frank L. Polk, Acting Secretary of
State, are believed to be paving the way
for a joint patrol of the border and a
peaceful settlement of the acute issue
which had again brought the two coun-
tries to the verge of war.

Greece Submits to the Allies

GREECE mobilized her army on
Sept. 23, 1915, two days after
Bulgaria. Early in October,
when the Allies landed at
Saloniki, she enrolled 30,000 additional
reserves, bringing her effective force up
to nearly 200,000. She proclaimed abso-
lute neutrality, but the Allies sensed a
decided leaning of the King toward the
Central Powers; it is supposed that this
attitude is due to the influence of the
Queen, who is a sister of the Ger-
man Kaiser. There was considerable
tension between the allied Governments
and Greece throughout the recent Winter
and Spring, which reached a crisis
when Greece yielded without a protest
to the occupation of important frontier
fortresses by its old enemy Bulgaria.
This complaisance to the Central Powers,
followed by demonstrations on June 12
by a band of hoodlums escorted by police-
men in uniform, visiting and hooting the
French and British legations with the
apparent approval of the Chief of Police,
the offensive attitude of the Premier,
and the benevolent sympathy of the

Royal House toward their enemies, de-
termined the Entente Allies on firm steps
to prevent a possible back fire.

Accordingly, on June 20, the following
note was handed to the Greek Govern-
ment, M. Zaimis having in the meantime
succeeded M. Skouloudis as Premier:
' By order of their Governments, the under-
signed, Ministers of France, Great Britain,
and Russia, representatives of the Guarantee
Powers (Puissances Garantes) of Greece,
have the honor to make to the Hellenic Gov-
ernment the following declaration, which
they have also been ordered to bring to the
knowledge of the Greek people:

As they have already formally and in writ-
ing declared, the three guaranteeing powers
do not ask of Greece that she shall depart
from her neutrality. Of this they give strik-
ing proef by putting in the first place among
their demands the total demobilization of the
Greek Army in order to assure tranquillity
and peace for the Hellenic people. But they
have many and legitimate grounds of sus-
picion against the Greek Government, whose
attitude toward them is not in conformity
either with its reiterated promises or even
with the principles of a loyal neutrality.

Thus the Greek Government has too often
favored the actions of certain foreigners who
have worked openly with the object of mis-
leading the opinion of the Greek people, of

838 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

falsifying the national conscience, and of
creating on Hellenic territory hostile organ-
izations contrary to the neutrality of the
country and tending to compromise the
security of the military and naval forces of
the Allies.

The entry of Bulgarian forces into Greece
and the occupation of the fort of Rupel and
other strategic points, with the connivance of
the Hellenic Cabinet, constitute for the allied
troops a new menace, which imposes on the
three powers the necessity of demanding im-
mediate guarantees and measures.

Further, the Greek Constitution has been
ignored; the free exercise of the universal
suffrage impeded ; the Chamber has been dis-
solved for the second time in less than a
year against the clearly expressed will of
the people ; the electors have been appealed to
(convoqugs) while mobilization was in full
swing, so that the present Chamber repre-
sents but an insignificant part of the Elec-
toral College ; the entire country has been
subjected to a reign of oppression and po-
lice tyranny and coerced without regard to the
lice tyranny and coerced without regard to the
ter have not only the right but the imperative
duty to protest against such violations of the
liberties of the Greek people, of which they
have been the guardians.

The hostile attitude of the Hellenic Govern-
ment toward the powers which freed Greece
from the foreign yoke and assured her in-
dependence, and the evident collusion of the
present Cabinet with their enemies make it
all the more necessary for them to act with
firmness, relying on the rights they hold by
treaty, which were confirmed, for the safety
of the Greek people on each occasion when
their rights and liberties have been threat-
ened.

Consequently the guaranteeing powers
find themselves compelled to require the im-
mediate application of the following meas-
ures :

1. Real and total demobilization of the
Greek Army, which must be put with the
least possible delay on a peace footing.

2. Immediate replacement of the existing
Ministry by a business Cabinet, (Cabinet

d' Affaires,) without political bias and pro-
viding all the guarantees necessary for the
application of the benevolent neutrality
which Greece has undertaken to observe
toward the allied powers, and for a fresh
appeal in good faith to the nation.

3. Immediate dissolution of the Chamber of
Deputies, followed by fresh elections on the
expiration of the period specified by the
Constitution, and after the general mobiliza-
tion shall have restored the electoral body
to its normal conditions.

4. The replacement, in agreement with the
allied powers, of certain police functionaries
whose attitude, inspired by foreign in-
structions, has facilitated the commission of
crimes against peaceable citizens, together
with insults directed against the allied lega-
tions and their dependents.

The guaranteeing powers, animated still by
the \nost benevolent and friendly spirit
toward Greece, but determined at the same
time to obtain, without discussion or delay,
the application of these indispensable meas-
ures, can only leave to the Hellenic Govern-
ment entire responsibility for such events as
may happen if their just demands are not im-
mediately accepted.

(Signed) J. GUILLEMIN,
F. ELLIOT,
DEMIDOFF.

When this note was delivered, British
and French warships appeared before
Piraeus and a practical blockade had
been established.

Matters now moved swiftly. The
Greek Government the next day accepted
in their entirety the demands contained
in the note. Orders were proclaimed de-
mobilizing the army on June 27; new
elections were ordered within forty days,
and a Venizelos adherent, Zymbrakakis,
was sworn in as Chief of Police at Athens
on June 28. The Allies now feel secure
that Greek neutrality will be maintained
throughout the war.

The Second Year of the War in Africa

[Written for CURRENT HISTORY by a Staff Contributor]

IN August, 1915, CURRENT HISTORY
gave some account of the rapid
alienation of Germany's colonial em-
pire, which, at the outset of the war,
measured over a million square miles.
It was made up of four sections of Af-
rica, of the northeastern third of the
vast Island of Papua, or New Guinea,
and of groups of islands scattered over
the Pacific, from New Guinea eastward.
This widely spread empire was open to
attack by several of the allied nations —
England, France, Belgium, Japan, and,
later, Portugal — while Germany, whose
fleets were swept from the open seas,
was wholly unable to support her forces
there.

The first colonies to go were the
insular possessions in the Pacific, taken
over by British colonial troops from
Australia and New Zealand — the nucleus
of the famous Anzac forces — to whom
French colonial forces from New Cale-
donia were added; and also by Japan,
whose captures were for the most part
turned over to Australia; at the same
time Togoland, on the north shore of the
great Gulf of Guinea, which indents
West Africa on the equator, was captured
by co-operating French and British
forces. All these colonies were elements
in the great scheme for a German co-
lonial empire, developed by Prince Bis-
marck, beginning with 1885; and Bis-
marckburg, in Togoland, as well as the
Bismarck Archipelago, north of German
New Guinea, (Kaiser Wilhelm Land,)
were intended to immortalize the great
statesman's name.

The campaign of General Louis Botha
gave to the Allies, and, more particularly,
to the recently formed Union of South
Africa, of which General Botha is Pre-
mier, the great region of German South-
west Africa, which thereon became a
part of the realm jointly possessed by
Briton and Boer. It is noteworthy that
these conquests by her dominions beyond
the sea bind these new nations more

firmly to Britain, since to safeguard
them the protection of the British fleet
and Britain's command of the sea are es-
sential. Their acquisition, therefore,
strengthens the bonds of the British Em-
pire.

There remained two great German col-
onies in Africa — the Cameroon region, to
the east of the Gulf of Guinea, so called
by the early Portuguese navigator, Fer-
nando Po, from the " Camerones," or
" crayfish," which his sailors found in
the river, an interesting etymology
hidden by the German spelling, " Kame-
run"; and, on the other side of Africa,
the colony of German East Africa. Both
these colonies are very large — larger
than Germany and France combined —
and much of them is covered with trop-
ical jungle, spread over very mountainous
country. In both, as events showed, the
German authorities had been vigorously
preparing for the expected world war,
as the fact that they were able to fight
continuously for many months without
new supplies of ammunition sufficiently
shows. They were also linked with Ger-
many and with each other by an extraor-
dinary system of wireless stations.

In both these German colonies fighting
began at the very beginning of the war.
In both there were considerable forces
of German soldiers, and very much larger
forces of well-armed native troops, under
German officers. In both there was a
network of strongly fortified German
posts, with trenches, earthworks, barbed
wire entanglements, (first used in Af-
rica in the Boer war,) and the while
paraphernalia of modern warfare.

CAPTURE OF CAMEROON

The Cameroon colony was surrounded
by British and French colonies — British
to the northwest, French to the east and
south, while on the west it was open to
the sea, and therefore commanded by
the allied fleets. The allied plan of
campaign was to work from the circum-

840 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

CHART SHOWING LOCATION OP THE FOUR GERMAN COLONIES IN AFRICA, WITH
STATUS OF EACH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PRESENT YEAR

ference to the centre, closing in on the
German forces as these were gradually
driven together. Their progress was as
follows:

At the beginning of January, 1915, the
French North Cameroon column arrived
before the German fortress of Garua,
seeking to make a junction with the Brit-
ish forces sent from Yola (in British
Nigeria) under Major Webb-Bowen. Col-
onel Brisset, in command of this French
force, made his camp ac Nassaroa, to
the north of Garua, and on Jan. 10 Major
Webb-Bowen joined him, bringing three
three-inch guns and fifteen machine
guns. In -April Colone? Cunliffe arrived,
and took command of the allied forces,
trench and British, a total of 900 com-
1~>i '•ants. Completely investing the Ger-
ma fortress, they began a five months'
siegeu Two heavy guns were later sent
from Dc\kar, a more aggressive attack
was begun, and, on the night of June 9-
10, the Germans, hard pressed, tried to
escape. They failed, and on June 10
hoisted the white flag. The Allies were
not supplied with a truce flag to hoist
in reply. One of their officers pulled off
his shirt, which " looked white from a
distance," and a parley was begun, Cap-

tain von Krailsheim finally surrendering
unconditionally. On June 11 the allied
forces entered Garua, replacing the Ger-
man flag by the British flag and the tri-
color.

At the close of June the allied forces,
pushing on to N'Gaundere, found it evac-
uated. The French there celebrated the
national festival of July 14. On Aug. 11
Captain Jean Ferrandi reached Kounde.
From Tibati the allied troops moved
against Yoko, in connection with a col-
umn which General CunHffe was leading
from Kontcha against Banyo, from
which he moved on Nov. 16 against
strong German positions on Mount
Banyo. To the east, two columns setting
out from Bertua and Dume, marched on
Tina. These different fprces were in-
tended to come together in the direction
of Yaunde, the last German stronghold.

At the southwest corner of the Came-
roon colony, on the Gulf of Guinea, there
is an " inset " of neutral territory, the
Spanish Congo. Making their escape
from Yaunde, the last German forces
crossed the border into this neutral
ground, where they were interned by the
Spanish authorities. The completion of
the conquest of the Cameroons was an-

THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR IN AFRICA

841

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MkufnbtF&G Ukuni-'' o •» / Z~^Z ~ '" ' !• *"• f<5/'*?\c^ . . ^^^^ ,-JL.—.

GERMAN"" S£^^"

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GERMAN EAST AFRICA, LAST REMNANT OF GERMAN POSSESSIONS IN THE DARK
CONTINENT, WHERE GENERAL SMUTS IS NOW LEADING THE FIGHTING FOR THE

ENTENTE ALLIES

nounced on Feb. 18, 1916, in a cablegram
from the Governor of British Nigeria,
which stated that the German garrison at
Mora, in the extreme north, had capitu-
lated. Mr. A. Bonar Law, Secretary of
State for the Colonies, telegraphed con-
gratulations to General Dobell and Gen-
eral Cunliffe on the success of the forces
under their command, and the organiza-
tion of the Cameroons, under French co-
lonial authorities, was begun. It is likely
that both Togoland and the Cameroons
are assigned, in the plans of the Allies,
to France.

GERMAN EAST AFRICA
German East Africa, which was de-
veloped from concessions in the back
country of Zanzibar, is, to a large degree,
bordered by the great African lakes —
Victoria Nyanza makes a deep cut into
it on the north, Lake Tanganyika forms
the upper half of its western frontier,
while Lake Nyassa forms the lower half.
On the east is the Indian Ocean. The
land frontier on the north is British East
Africa; the land boundary on the west is
the Belgian Congo. The land boundaries
on the south are British Nyassaland and

Portuguese Mozambique. Thus the Ger-
man colony is beset on all sides by allied
possessions; now that Portugal has en-
tered the war on the side of the Allies —
following the seizure of fourteen Ger-
man steamships in the* estuary of the
Tagus — there is no adjoining neutral ter-
ritory to which the German forces can
retreat as the defenders of the Came-
roon colony retreated to the Spanish
Congo.

We may infer the completeness of
their preparation for war by the fact that
the Germans in East Africa now com-
plete their second year of fighting with-
out having received any considerable
supplies from the outside. Here, as on
the west coast of Africa, they had strong-
ly fortified posts dotted all over the
colony, and strong native forces, num-
bering some 50,000 — a very large army,
considering the immense difficulties of
the country, much of which is heavy
jungle, on the sides of the highest moun-
tains in Africa.

In such country all the advantage is
on the side of the party which is on the
defensive; one or two well-placed ma-

812 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

chine guns — and the Germans have large
numbers of these — can keep back a very
considerable force, where the use of ar-
tillery is almost out of the question.
There is some artillery, however; the
Allies have several times announced the
capture of Krupp field pieces, the same
77-millimeter guns that are used against
Verdun.

Until the Spring of the present year
the allied campaign in German East
Africa languished somewhat. General
Smuts, the famous Boer leader, who is
a member of General Botha's Ministry,
was then sent thither, with the tem-
porary rank of a Lieutenant General in
the British Army. After his arrival
things began to move, and, an interesting
feature of the situation, the Belgians
from the west and the Portuguese from
the south co-operated vigorously and sys-
tematically with the British. Recent suc-
cesses were as follows:

On May 13 General Tombeur, leading
the Belgians, compelled the retreat of
the German force near Lake Kivu, oc-
cupying the Kama range of hills, and
capturing a Krupp 77. Toward the end
of May a British force, working forward
from Nyassaland under General Northey,
penetrated twenty miles into German ter-
ritory between Lake Tanganyika and
Lake Nyassa, and compelled the Germans
to evacuate Neu Langenburg, to the north
of Lake Nyassa, capturing large quanti-
ties of ammunition. A nearby German
garrison, at Marema, was invested. By
the beginning of June the Belgians had
penetrated 125 miles into German ter-
ritory; their left rested on the River
Kagera, while their centre had crossed

the River Akanjaru, and their right was
approaching the town of Usumbura. The
Belgian troops were everywhere well re-
ceived by the natives, and established a
provisional government in Ruanda.

Meanwhile, the British troops, working
inland along the Pangani River, which
flows into the sea to the north of Zanzi-
bar, had come in touch with the Germans
at Mikachesi on May 22. The enemy line
was astride the railroad in the narrow
neck between the Pare Mountains and
the Panzani, and was strongly in-
trenched. On May 30 these trenches
were assaulted and carried. The Ger-
mans retired up the railroad to Mkomazi,
with the forces of General Smuts in pur-
suit. At the same time the Portuguese,
operating from the south, had defeated
the Germans at the mouth of the Ro-
vuma River, near Kionga.

On Lake Victoria Nyanza the Island
of Ukerewe was taken from the Ger-
mans, with two Krupp guns. On June
13 General Northey's forces occupied Alt
Langenburg, while the Belgians took
possession of the line between Lake
Tanganyika and Lake Victoria Nyanza,
the British meawnhile taking Handeni.
On June 22 it was announced that Gen-
eral Tombeur's Belgians had defeated
the Germans at Kiwitawe, and had en-
gaged them again on the road from
Kiwitawe to Kitega, east of the River
Ngokoma.

The allied strategy is exactly the same
as in the Cameroons — to work from
many points along the circumference, in
toward the centre, where the end will
come.

What Germany Has Lost in the Cameroons

CAMEROON, the important Ger-
\J man colony on the central west
coast of Africa, passed into pos-
session of the Allies on Feb. 18, 1916,
when the garrison of Mora, in the
northern portion, capitulated. The first
mention of this district is by early
Portuguese navigators, who sought its
shores for food and water. In drawing

their nets they found them laden with
prawns, and named the district River of
Prawns, or Rio dos Camaroes; this was
in the seventeenth century. Two hundred
years later the Niger Trading Company,
an English company, sent steamships to
that section for legitimate commerce, al-
though it is suspected the slave trade was
surreptitiously the chief purpose. In

THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR IN AFRICA

843

1857 a British cruiser, sent out to sup-
press the trade, while anchored in the
Cameroon River, was visited by a delega-
tion of native chiefs, who asked that Eng-
land take possession of the Cameroon
country, and in compliance with this re-
quest the commander hoisted the British
flag and took possession. The British
Admiralty revoked this action and or-
dered the flag hauled down. Twenty-
two years later the chiefs again asked
England to take possession, but no action
was taken.

In 1840 Hamburg merchants opened
trade relations with the natives of the
West Coast, and in 1859 they had
factories near the Cameroon River. In
1883 the Hamburg Chamber of Com-
merce recommended the annexation of
the Cameroon coast, and on April 20,
1884, the German Charge d'Affaires at
London notified the British Foreign Of-
fice that the German Consul General
would " visit " the West Coast of Africa
with authority to conduct negotiations
" connected with certain questions," and
asked that the German officials be " fur-
nished with suitable recommendations."
Shortly thereafter two German warships
appeared at the coast — one the Mowe,
curiously enough the predecessor of the
Mowe which recently made a sensational
sea raid near the coast, achieving a dra-
matic escape from the British fleet and
returning safely to Hamburg. On July
5, 1884, the German flag was raised at
Togoland, and a few days later at the
Cameroon River.

This was a shock to England, reveal-
ing the fact that Germany had entered
the lists in the scramble for colonies in
Africa. As soon as the news leaked out
that Togoland and the Cameroon had
been taken by Germany, British agents
made treaties with native chiefs to se-

cure the mouths of the Niger and the Oil
River, which were the choice possessions
of that region.

The colony was increased in 1911 to
an area of 295,000 square miles by the
cession of part of the Congo territory by
France in compensation for German con-
cessions in Morocco. Its length is over
700 miles and its breadth 600 miles, be-
ing twice the size of the United King-
dom.

Edward Bond, in a study of the dis-
trict for the Contemporary Review, gives
some interesting data concerning it.
About half the country is flat, with fine
agricultural possibilities. The western
part from the sea northward is mount-
ainous, with some lofty peaks, one, the
Mountain of Greatness, having an alti-
tude of 13,370 feet. The forests contain
much valuable hardwood, conspicuously
ebony. The natives are Moslems, with
Arabic civilization. Their chief occupa-
tion is stock raising. The chief town,
Duala, had a population of 25,000, includ-
ing 200 Europeans. It is well laid out
and sanitary. In 1913 a railway 150
miles long had been built, another was
under construction, and a third under
survey. ,The total population of the col-
ony is 3,500,000. There are four Govern-
ment schools, with 868 pupils, and four
missionary schools, with 24,000 pupils.
At the time of the latest figures the im-
ports were $8,000,000 and the exports
$5,600,000.

The colony has been a liability to the
German Government, the latest reported
deficit reaching nearly $2,500,000 per
annum. However, it has the very bright-
est prospects, as everything that will
grow in tropical Africa can be grown
there and the temperate climate in the
vast mountainous areas gives all the pos-
sibilities of a temperate zone.

France and Italy Reunited

By Anatole France

Foremost Living French Author
[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY]

This address by Anatole France, reproduced here for its charm of style and its exquisite
political tact, was delivered in Paris at a conference organized by Louis Barthou, former
President of the Council, in honor of Italy's*work in the war.

GATHERED here before the youth
of our schools to render solemn
homage to Italy, we should first
salute with respectful sympathy
Italy's Ambassador, [M. Tittoni,] whose
presence among us brings us into the
presence of his beloved land itself. Who
could better incarnate that land in our
eyes than the illustrious statesman whose
political acts have done so much to bring
about the union, consummated here today,
of his country with England, Russia, and
France? We acclaim him today, in this
august Sorbonne, as he was acclaimed in
the diplomatic tribune of our Chamber
of Deputies in the historic days of May,
1915, when, on the Capitoline Hill, to the
plaudits of Romans, the bell of the cam-
panile announced to the universe that
Italy was taking up arms for a just
cause, * * *

I will express in as few words as pos-
sible my esteem and admiration, as a
Frenchman, for that beautiful Italy
which I have loved all my life; loved for
her nature and her genius, loved for her
cypress-crowned hills, her mountains of
terebinthine shade, or, bare under the
sun that gilds them, those other
mountains whose very names set gen-
erous hearts a-throb; a Frenchman who
has loved her for her harmonious shores,
her lakes, her sea and her sky of divine
smiles, her cities of marble and her
villages high perched on rock, proud as
citadels ; who has loved her for her poets,
her musicians, her artists, her historians
and scholars, her deep past of thrilling
grandeur, and her later past still palpi-
tating with the struggles of the Risorgi-
mento, which the morrow will crown with
victory; who has loved her, in fine, with
all the transports of passion, all the

delights of the voluptuary, all the medi-
tations of the philosopher.

It is thus that Italy is loved in France.
As for the proof of this attachment, you
will find it in the grieved surprise caused
among us by the political and economic
estrangement which in recent years had
separated the two nations.

With what satisfaction, too, did we see,
after the beginning of the war, that
Italy, refusing to be an accomplice in an
unjust aggression, and denouncing the
Triple Alliance, was giving us, as a fore-
taste of her friendship, security on our
southern frontier !

And with what joy did we learn, on
May 16, 1915, that she was uniting her
arms with ours! There was reason then
not only to rejoice but to admire Italy,
for the war was not imposed upon her
as upon us, or, rather, it was imposed
upon her solely by her love of justice
and regard for her destiny.

Italy took up this war, not because she
thought it easy and sure, but, on the
contrary, because, foreseeing that it
would be long and terrible, she deemed
the act wise and necessary. Since then
she has fought with a soul resolute and
serene, with a heart immovable, in firm
and sincere solidarity with us.

In December she signed the pact of
London, binding herself not to lay down
her arms save in co-operation with the
Entente Powers, and she gave to Belgium
the assurance that she would not cease
to fight so long as an inch of Belgian
earth was still fouled by the foot of the
invader. She proclaimed through the
lips of her most illustrious statesmen:
" Italy is resolved to continue the struggle
with all her forces, at the price of all
sacrifices, until she has realized her most

FRANCE AND ITALY REUNITED

845

sacred hopes, restored international law
in concert with the Allies, and with them
assured among nations the blessings of
independence, security, and reciprocal
respect, which alone can restore calm to
the universe." This great task accom-
plished, peace will rise like the sun over
the world, and we shall see fulfilled the
prayer of the eminent man in whom we
have just been saluting all Italy, M.
Tittoni :

" May the peace won by victory not be
a peace, but peace itself, peace free from
all war germs, peace seated solidly on
the principles of nationality and of inter-
national justice."

Such is the meaning of the pact that
binds Italy to us. Such are the generous
conditions of her generous aid. Can we
wipe out our debt to her with vain
praises and sterile homages? No. In
calmer days, when we shall have returned
to the works of earth, of industry and of
art, we will remember that from the
Stelvio to the Isonzo, around peaks cov-
ered with eternal snow, in gorges whipped
by glacial blasts, her precious blood
flowed for the common cause.

Friends of Italy in these war times, we

shall remain her friends in the days of
peace; fraternity in arms shall not be
followed by hostility in business. We
shall know how to reconcile the com-
mercial, industrial, and financial interests
of the two nations, and range into har-
mony the old barriers of figures, which
are sometimes as cruel in peace as barbed
wire in war.

Ladies, gentlemen, and you, young
men, who shall long taste the fruits of
this peace which shall have cost fierce
labors and bloody sacrifices, remember
always that your fathers, allies of this
noble and fine Italy, allies of almost all
civilized Europe, fought not for prey,
like barbarians, not for insolent and
cruel domination, like our adversaries,
but for liberty against tyranny, for
justice against iniquity, for the faith of
treaties against perfidy, for peace against
war. And let the example of the con-
quered (for we can regard our enemies
henceforth as conquered) forever guard
you from the brutal pride that has
destroyed them, from their greedy desires,
and from their disdain of the weak! Let
their ruin teach you reason and justice,
and persuade you that force without
wisdom devours itself!

A German Ex-Chancellor's Comment on American War

Sentiment

Prince von Billow is the author of a book, " Deutsche Politik," in which he
makes this comment upon the prevailing war sympathies in the United States:

Germany has noted with sore distress the biases and the unfriendly bearing
of official and public America during the war, which are greatly to the empire's
disadvantage. Such ruthlessness as has been manifested toward us by official
America and by the public in the course of differences on the subject of the
conduct of the submarine war we have never met with before, and it is probably
unique in the history of the diplomatic relations of two great countries. The
feeling of rancor at present entertained by very many Germans toward the
American people, whom they so long regarded as honest friends, is but too
comprehensible and is justified. This rancor is in no sense mitigated by the
fact that by exploiting the present world situation America is in a fair way
to become the wealthiest country on earth. * * * Such a song of triumph as
that over the unprecedented economic advance made by the United States since
the beginning of the war, uttered at the end of the year 1915 by the American
Secretary of the Treasury with a compassionate side glance at Europe, decimated
and impoverished by the world war, has seldom, if ever, been heard before.

War's Effects On the Upper Classes

By Guglielmo Ferrero

Italian Historian and Publicist

" That in all the countries of Europe the upper classes will find themselves worse
off after the war than before, all of them less rich, less powerful, less respected and
less united, is one of the least fallacious predictions that can be made today. * * *
And yet it was the upper classes that, in some countries willingly, in others uncon-
sciously, brought ab&ut this war."

DESTINY is being fulfilled; the
force of events vanquishes the re-
sistance offered by traditions, in-
terests, and prejudices. At last
England, too, institutes military service
as an obligatory duty of all her citizens.

The last army of the ancient regime,
that in military matters was still able to
bring to mind the days preceding the
French Revolution, disappears in Europe.

Military institutions are among those
especially sensitive to the changes that
occur in other organs of the social body,
and also, by altering themselves, con-
tribute most toward changing the others.
Old England, therefore, has taken an-
other step along the road that leads to
her " continentalism," if I may be
allowed to use such a barbarous word.
Because the new military institutions
will remain in effect after the war. A
reform of this nature is not, and can not
be, a mere transitory expedient; it is
always the beginning of a new historical
epoch. And thus once more we see con-
firmed that sort of iron law which ap-
pears to have dominated Europe since
the time of the French Revolution, and
which implies that all the other revolu-
tionary forces that have agitated Euro-
pean society since the days of the French
Revolution — the ideas, the principles, the
interests, the parties — would have been
much less active and would not have
changed the face of the world so much
if they had not been aided every once
in a while by the shock of a great war.

There are innumerable examples of
this. The abolition of serfdom in Russia
was one of the many results of the
Crimean war, as the constitutional regime
was one of the effects of the war with
Japan. The people of France received
universal suffrage from the republic

that was the result of a war. The people
of Germany got it from an aristocracy
that wished with this concession to pre-
pare them for the bloody effort of a
great war. The wars of '59 and '66
forced the haughty spirit of the Haps-
burgs to compromise with the spirit of
democracy and liberalism of the times
by granting to the peoples of the
monarchy a constitution, political liberty,
and national autonomy. That facility in
making democratic concessions, which
little by little, from 1860 on, has tempered
the vigor and mode of action of the
Italian Government, has been to a large
degree a compensation given to the
people in connection with the military
burdens imposed by the new regime,
burdens much more numerous and heavy
than those imposed by the old one. And
this list might be extended.

In short, for a century the upper
classes have lost in the midst of wars
many of those privileges to which they
seemed most attached and in defense of
which in times of peace they had spared
neither pains nor cunning. The fact is
not strange in itself; what is more
strange is the fact that, in general, the
upper classes during the past century
have been, practically everywhere, war-
like, militaristic, imperialistic, and sup-
porters of a policy which, by multiplying
wars, has obliged them to make these
concessions; while the masses, and the
parties representing the masses, though
having the most to gain by war, have
been, almost always and everywhere,
pacific and opposed to all forms of im-
perialism.

This peculiar contradiction has been
made especially apparent in the Euro-
pean war. That in all the countries of
Europe the upper classes will find them-

WAR'S EFFECTS ON THE UPPER CLASSES

847

selves worse off after the war than be-
fore, all of them less rich, less powerful,
less respected, and less united is one of
the least fallacious predictions that may
be made today. To what degree the
middle and popular classes will profit by
this weakening of the rulers would be
difficult to say, and it would be just as
difficult to say if this recompense will
be sufficient to indemnify them for the
losses inflicted upon them by the war.
But it is certain that the power and
prestige of the upper classes and of the
institutions to which they are attached
through tradition or interest will be put
to a severe test by the war, while the
classes more numerous and poorer will
be able to obtain important political ad-
vantages. And yet it was the upper
classes that, in some countries willingly,
in others unconsciously, brought about
this war.

In sorting over my papers the other
day I found an article published by
Jaures in L'Humanite on Sept. 12, 1906.
This article read, in part, as follows :

" It sees that we are acting like bad
citizens * * * in admonishing the
nations, all the nations, the rulers, all
the rulers, to be prudent, to be moderate,
to show a wise and systematic desire for
peace; in demonstrating that war in Eu-
rope would provoke a terrible moral and
social crisis. * * * Guglielmo Fer-
rero wrote, a little while ago in his ' His-
tory of Rome,' that wars precipitate so-
cial crises by causing the explosion of
the contradictions latent in the States.
A great European war would unchain on
the one side a nationalism, instinctive and
reactionary, and on the other the revolu-
tionary spirit; it would cause the appear-
ance on one hand of a sort of Assembly
of Versailles, less monarchical, less
bigoted, but just as clerical and more
militaristic, and on the other a sort of
Commune, more systematic, but perhaps
just as impotent. The crisis, although
raging in all Europe, would be more vio-
lent and more profound in the democratic
countries where the clash of the classes
would not fre attenuated by the authority
of the past. France, therefore, would be
in the centre of the cyclone and of the

danger. Now, we do not want to see
France perish; nor do we want to see
her weakened. And neither do we wish
that the necessary social revolution be
effected in a hurricane of blood, of fury,
and of tears. For this reason we suppli-
cate France to use for her own salvation
that which may otherwise aggravate her
danger and to convert into a means of
salvation that force of liberty and of de-
mocracy which might, perhaps, in a day
of storms, send her to the bottom in the
midst of the deep abysses stirred up by
the European crisis."

It would be difficult to find another
page on which there could be expressed
with more force and clarity the fear of
war and its revolutionary energy that
animated the parties considered revolu-
tionary up to 1914. A fear which, for
the rest, is not hard to explain, for the
masses represented by those parties pre-
ferred peace to the benefits which might
be brought to them by war, and they pre-
ferred peace, not merely because peace
is more agreeable than war, but also be-
cause there never has been an instance
where the multitude, the people, the
many, have been revolutionary, except
when there has been a lack of bread in
the kneading trough or of coal on the
hearth of the artisan and of the peasant.
The true revolutionary spirit has never
been found anywhere except among the
upper and educated classes, and there
never has been a revolution not set in
motion by the outbreak of dissension in
the centre of the governing classes. But
ordinarily the upper classes attempt, or
make, revolutions in their own interest,
which makes it hard to understand the
strange mania for committing suicide
through a succession of wars, each
greater than the other, that seems to
have had possession of the upper classes
of Europe for the last century.

The historian who could get to the
bottom of this problem would perhaps be
able to discover one of the essential mys-
teries of contemporary civilization and
to decipher the meaning of all these
tragedies that have ensued, one after the
other, in Europe for a century.

[THIRD INSTALLMENT]

The Battle of Verdun

An Authoritative French Account Based on Official Records

By M. Ardouin-Dumazet

Military Editor of Le Temps and Le Figaro
[TRANSLATED FOB CURRENT HISTORY]

THURSDAY, May 18.— At this stage
the battle of Verdun reached a
degree of violence surpassing, per-
haps, that which marked the
worst days of Vaux and Le Mort Homme.
Beginning with May 17, the conflict in-
creased steadily, except for a short inter-
ruption on May 19. The enemy, who
continued to bombard the sector included
between the Avocourt Wood and Le Mort
H0mme, during the night of May 17-18
launched several attacks against the
Avocourt Wood redoubt, but was com-
pelled to retire after suffering heavy
losses. On our side, toward 3 in the
morning, we carried a trench on the
crest of 287-Meter Hill, which extends
toward Haucourt. On the northeast of
304-Meter Plateau, we carried a forti-
fied position. During the whole day, on
May 18, an artillery duel continued,
interrupted at 5 in the evening by a gen-
eral attack on our lines. Our barrier
fire broke several assaulting columns.
At 7 the enemy made a new effort — two
divisions (40,000 men) of fresh troops
were launched against the Avocourt re-
doubt and 304-Meter Hill ; the shock was
severe, but, in spite of numbers, the
waves broke befere the fire of our bat-
teries; only in the centre, a small work
near 287-Meter Hill was invaded.

Friday, May 19. — This fruitless at-
tempt did not discourage the Germans;
the whole day of May 19 was conse>
crated by them to a terrible bombard-
ment of our trenches; their fire, this
time, extended to Le Mort Homme; it
continued all night long.

Saturday, May 20. — The bombardment
continued throughout the morning. Our
adversaries were preparing an attack
even more violent than the preceding.
In the afternoon four divisions, that is

to say, two army corps, (80,000 men,)
were thrown into the assault which had
as principal objective Le Mort Homme.

A BLOODY CRISIS

Sunday, May 21.— The battle, which
took on a character of extreme ferocity,
was continued all night and through the
whole day of May 21. Three divisions,
as we have since learned, were employed
in it. Ceaselessly, our artillery and ma-
chine guns mowed down the assailants,
whose places were taken by others. At
the price of tremendous efforts, the
enemy succeeded in gaining certain
trenches to the north and west of Le Mort
Homme; at one time, even our second-
line trenches were threatened. But the
Germans, met by our fire, lost so many
men that they retired in disorder.

Monday, May 22. — Night did not lessen
the struggle. In spite of our barrier
fire, which broke their assaults, the Ger-
mans succeeded in penetrating a first-
line trench, to the north of Le Mort
Homme. But they got no further. Dur-
ing the whole of May 21, one of the
bloodiest, during which the struggle did
not cease for an instant, we even suc-
ceeded in regaining ground on 287-Meter
Hill. After reaching a trench on 287-
Meter Hill, the enemy was driven out
of it. A brigade, launched against Le
Mort Homme, was crushed by our fire
and an offensive by our grenadiers.
Other troops were coming up to sup-
port these two regiments; our batteries
dispersed them before they could get
under way. Night did not lessen the
struggle, but, already, the enemy seemed
to have lost the biting edge of his
energy; we gained certain advantages in
the Avocourt Wood and on Le Mort
Homme, while we were repulsing new

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN

849

assaults. A counterattack permitted us
to recover a part of the ground lost on
May 20 and 21. We followed up this
success throughout the day of May 22, at
the same time driving out the Germans
who, for four days, had held one of our
works on 287-Meter Hill.

EAST OF THE MEUSE

On the right (east) bank the week
had begun quietly; there was only ar-
tillery fire, of no great violence; but
on May 21 our artillery concentrated its
fire on the whole Douaumont sector. To
the west our infantry attacked, in the
Haudromont Woods, strongly intrenched
quarries, carried them, and held their
footing there, in spite of strong counter-
attacks. At the same time, at Vaux, we
occupied a German trench.

This was only the prelude of an oper-
ation of greater scope prepared by our
commanders. On the morning of May
22 powerful artillery, brought forward
under cover, opened fire on the German
lines from the Nawe Wood to the west
of the Thiaumont farm, as far as the
woods to the east of Fort Douaumont.
The fire was extremely accurate and vio-
lent; trenches and barbed-wire entangle-
ments were so pounded that our soldiers
in a few minutes seized and held the
enemy trenches. The assault covered a
front of two kilometers, (l1^ miles,)
enveloping Douaumont Fort itself, the
ruins of which we carried, except one
of the salients to the north of the work.

Tuesday, May 23. — Our progress on
the right (east) bank, with their loss
of the Douaumont lines, had the effect
of bringing two furious enemy counter-
attacks, on both banks of the Meuse,
during the night of May 22-23 and
throughout the following day. To the
west, 304-Meter Hill and its approaches
toward Avocourt were particularly aimed
at. The use of flaming liquids made it
possible for the assailant to invade our
trench for a brief period; our soldiers,
coming forward again, drove him out.
In the direction of Le Mort Homme he
was not able even to get near our lines;
all the troops that showed themselves
were immediately dispersed by our fire.
Then the bombardment was resumed
along the whole of this sector, with large-

calibre shells; throughout the morning
projectiles rained upon it. This terrible
fire was the preparation for a new
assault against the two flanks of Le
Mort Homme, the valley of Esnes and
the direction of Cumieres. The first
waves were mowed down by our artillery
and machine guns without reaching our
trenches. At nightfall, a second rush,
not less violent, at one time reached our
shelters. There, also, a vigorously con.
ducted counterattack cleared the ground
and threw the Germans back into their
lines.

GERMANS IN CUMIERES

Wednesday, May 24. — But on the night
of May 23-24 the enemy returned to the
assault, aiming against Le Mort Homme,
and, by a powerful effort, after very
heavy losses, they got a footing in the
village of Cumieres. On Wednesday they
tried in vain to come forward from this
position; we even retook trenches on the
south edge of the village.

Yet more violent and savage was the
German counteroffensive against the
woods of Haudromont and Fort Douau-
mont. During the night the enemy mul-
tiplied his assaults in thick masses, on
which our fire inflicted terrible losses.

On May 23 and during the night of
May 23-24 the enemy manifested increas-
ing violence; his artillery reached an
extraordinary power, but without suc-
ceeding in making us give up the ground
we had gained. At intervals the guns
ceased firing to allow of infantry
assaults; these were at first repulsed;
on the morning of May 24 Fort Douau-
mont remained in our hands, except for
the northern projection and certain ele-
ments on the east. But during May 24
two new Bavarian divisions (40,000
men) were sent to the attack, and suc-
ceeded in reoccupying the ruins, push-
ing us back to the approaches, that is,
to about the point we occupied before
our attack of May 22. At the Caillette
Wood the enemy was not even able to
get near us.

Thursday, Friday, May 25-26. — On the"
evening of May 26 our troops, suddenly
coming forth from their trenches, in
turn attacked Cumieres and the positions
as far as Le Mort Homme, after a pro-

850 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

longed bombardment of the enemy lines.
Led with skill and vigor, the assault
brought us immediately to the first
houses, whose ruins were at once defen-
sively organized. In spite of the resist-
ance of the Germans, our men made their
way into the streets, and, house by
house, carried the whole eastern quar-
ter. On their left other elements took
the trenches to the north of the Caurette
Woods. Soon the whole Cumieres posi-
tion was half surrounded. The enemy
made a vigorous counterattack; several
waves broke under our fire. Finally, we
retook half of Cumieres and surrounded
the other half. We had made 100 pris-
oners and captured two machine guns.

On the rest of the sector on the left
(west) bank of the Meuse we had, dur-
ing the night, carried with grenades sev-
eral elements of trenches on the
approaches of 304-Meter Hill.

Saturday, May 27. — On May 27 we
gained a like success to the southwest
of Le Mort Homme, where our soldiers
took fifty prisoners. The enemy appeared
to be passive.

Sunday, May 28. — At nightfall an at-
tack was prepared in the Corbeaux
Wood, directed against Cumieres; our
fire cut it short. At midnight the effort
was renewed, with the same lack of
success.

Monday, May 29. — On the morning of
May 29 an intensive bombardment with
heavy guns began, and continued with
increasing energy until 1 in the after-
noon. At that moment masses of the
enemy appeared — a whole division (20,-
000) men came forth from the Corbeaux
Wood, moving against Cumieres and Le
Mort Homme. Broken by our fire, a
first wave recoiled; others came on,
meeting the same fate; the assailants
took cover in -hell craters, but, when
they came out to rush forward, our ma-
chine guns and rifles cut them down.
These repeated assaults at last won for
the enemy 300 meters of trenches. On
the same day two violent attacks against
304-Meter Hill were stopped by our fire.

Tuesday, May 30.— At nightfall, after
a bombardment even more violent than
the preceding, a new assault was
launched by the enemy from the eastern

slopes of Le Mort Homme to Cumieres.
A division which had recently arrived
before Verdun took part in it. It had
no better fortune than the troops sent
forward on the day before. To the east
of Le Mort Homme the assailants were
mowed down; at Cumieres, they failed
to force us out of the southern edge of
the village. Only in the centre, at the
Caurette Wood, our front line was com-
pelled to retire to fhe south of the
Bethincourt road.

Wednesday, May 31. — The struggle was
continued during the night of Tuesday
to Wednesday. The first-line trench to
the south of the Caurette Wood, leveled
by the bombardment, had to be aban-
doned. The edge of Cumieres, again furi-
ously attacked, was taken from us. A
counterattack pushed the enemy back to
the edge of the village. Groups of Ger-
mans, taking advantage of the night mist
which floated over the Meuse, advancer
1,200 meters from Cumieres toward the
Chattancourt station; they were met by
so hot a fire that all were annihilated.

The enemy, succeeding at last in
reaching the 295-Meter summit of Le
Mort Homme, had been able to organize
a strong work on the southwest slope.
This we took on Wednesday, making 220
prisoners, including five officers. On
the southeast slope we also took pris-
oners.

On the right (east) bank the assault
of Fort Douaumont by two Bavarian
divisions, previously related, had cost the
enemy dear, for a slight gain which we
reduced, on the morning of May 26, by
retaking a trench. On the afternoon
of the same day the Germans tried to
dislodge us from the approaches to Fort
Douaumont; two successive attacks were
repulsed. Thereafter, the struggle was
confined to persistent artillery fire.
WEST OF THE MEUSE

On the left (west) bank of the Meuse,
where, up to May 31, such violent fight-
ing had- taken place, the stress of the
struggle continually decreased. The
enemy confined himself to frequent and
furious bombardments of 304-Meter Hill
and Le Mort Homme. But the principal
offensives were made by us. To our suc-
cessful attack on the slope of Le Mort

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN

851

Homme, in the direction of Cumieres,
which gave us 220 prisoners, the enemy
replied with a; bombardment of very
great violence, followed by a fruitless
attack on the eastern slope. We then
penetrated for 100 meters (328 feet)
into the connecting trenches to the south
of the Caurettes Wood, and on June 4 we
halted, before it was clearly marked, an
attack prepared against our new posi-
tions on 304-Meter Hill.

EAST OF THE MEUSE
Thursday, June 1. — On the right
(east) bank of the Meuse there were
events of quite other significance. After
a bombardment which grew continually
more violent, on May 31, on the following
night, and on June 1, our whole front,
from the Thiaumont farm to Douaumont
and Vaux, was assaulted. The assaults
were repeated, and were everywhere re-
pulsed except between Fort Douaumont
and Vaux Pond; that is, in the Caillette
Wood, where the enemy succeeded in get-
ting a footing in some of our trenches.
The struggle continued throughout the
afternoon and the whole night with
extreme violence, extending toward
Woevre as far as the village of Damloup
at the foot of the eastern slope of the
Vaux ridge.

The enemy, driven back, returned
ceaselessly to the charge, sending for-
ward on a narrow sector more than a
division of fresh troops, launched with
veritable fury. A document found on a
prisoner proved that General Falken-
hayn (Chief of the German General
Staff) had given the order to advance
at all costs, without regard to losses.
The objective was Fort Vaux. The Ger-
mans succeeded in making their way for-
ward only in the Caillette Wood, from
which they reached the south of the
pond; this conflict lasted five days.

DAY OF FURIOUS FIGHTING
Friday, June 2. — The artillery contest
reached an exceptional degree of violence
on June 2. Our reply was effective, for
they failed to force the Vaux-Damloup
sector; enemy masses which tried to take
advantage of the bombardment were se-
verely cut up. In spite of these losses,
the Germans returned with increasing

fury; throughout the whole day their
waves succeeded each other, especially
those directed against the steep escarp-
ments of the fort.

The Bavarian division, which led the
principal attack, fought furiously. Our
cannon and machine gun fire swept them
away in masses, but others came on un-
ceasingly. They could be seen on the
open plain; our artillery found them
out, hurling disorder among them. The
troops thus scattered retired toward
Dieppe-en-Woevre. The enemy's sole
gain was the capture of a position among
the first houses of Damloup.

Night did not stop the carnage.
Through the sacrifice of their men the
Germans were finally able to penetrate
the northern ditch of the fort, but with-
out being able to enter the work itself.
We maintained our hold there.

Saturday, June 3. — Our exhausted ad-
versaries did not seek to extend their
success. Toward 8 in the evening, when
the ground had been cut up by a pro-
longed bombardment, the enemy at-
tempted to surprise the fort on the south-
east, coming up the ravine which indents
the ridges of the Meuse near Damloup.
The masses launched in the assault, com-
pact and vigorous, succeeded in pene-
trating the trenches; a counterattack
immediately retook the ground lost and
pushed the assailants back along the
slopes.

Sunday, June 4. — In the morning they
returned to the charge; our artillery
forced them to retire. Then the bom-
bardment began again with particular
violence, especially against Fort Vaux.
At 3 in the afternoon several German
battalions, starting from Vaux Pond,
tried to make their way up to the Fir-
min Wood, which carpets a slope repre-
senting a difference in level of 80 meters,
(262 feet.) The fire of our machine
guns broke down all these attempts. Dur-
ing the evening and night, from the Fir-
min Wood to Vaux and Damloup, violent
attacks were resumed. They were unable
to take the Firmin Wood. Violent at-
tacks against the fort and village of
Damloup were broken by our fire. The
enemy then had recourse to flaming
liquids; in the middle of the night they

852 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

tried to sprinkle the defenders of the
fort with these. But, in spite of cruel
injuries, our soldiers held firm and re-
tained possession of the work.

Monday, June 5. — Bad weather and
perhaps the weariness of the troops
stopped the struggle on June 5.

Tuesday, June 6. — The German artil-
lery continued to cover the fort with
shells, rendering the approaches impass-
able for relieving troops; within the work
our resistance had not grown weaker.
The French Chief Command decided to
reward the heroic defenders, in the
person of their chief, Major Raynal, who
was promoted to Commander of the
Legion of Honor. He had to repulse a
new and powerful attack on Tuesday
evening, at 8, throwing back the enemy
once more.

LOSS OF FORT VAUX

Wednesday, June 7. — On the night of
June 6-7, as a result of the violence of the
bombardment, all communication with the
fort became impossible. Shortly before 4
in the morning, it was still in our pos-
session. As early as March 9 the enemy
had falsely announced that he had taken
Fort Vaux by assault. But the conquest
was still to cost him many thousands of
lives.

As was foreseen, Fort Vaux, complete-
ly isolated because of the violence of the
bombardment, fell into the hands of the
Germans. But even then it was not taken
by assault. The heroic garrison, having
exhausted their ammunition, without
water and without food, was compelled to
capitulate. From German sources of in-
formation it was learned that Major
Raynal was authorized by the Crown
Prince to retain his sword, in recognition
of his splendid defense. - He has been
interned at Mayence.

Thursday, Friday, June 8, 9. — During
the night of June 8-9 two attempts to
storm 304-Meter Hill, on the left (west)
bank of the Meuse, met with failure. On
June 9 the enemy made another series
of attacks, directing his principal efforts
against the west and south of the hill.
In spite of the use of flaming liquids he

was not able to get close to our trenches;
our barrier fire was able to stop him.

Saturday, June 10. — Two further as-
saults on June 10 were not more success-
ful.

THE THIAUMONT FARM

On the right (east) bank of the Meuse
the Germans continued to direct the fire
of their artillery on the whole front
stretching between Thiaumont farm and
Fort Vaux, the sector occupied by the
southern extremity of the Caillette
Wood, Chapitre Wood, and Firmin Wood.
Their gunfire, carrying beyond that line,
reached the forts of Tavane and Sou-
ville, which join the batteries of the
tunnel with those of the hospitaL Our
batteries replied energetically to this
fire, under shelter of which, on several
occasions, the Germans tried to get into
our trenches.

On June 8 the two flanks of the
Thiaumont position were reached; these
attacks, although stopped by our barrier
fire, permitted the enemy to penetrate
into one of our works between Thiau-
mont and the Caillette Wood; their other
assaults were broken.

Sunday, Monday, June 11, 12, — The
Germans returned to the charge on the
night of Sunday-Monday, to the west of
Fort Vaux. Repulsed, they resumed the
bombardment of the Thiaumont front,
which seemed to be their principal ob-
jective. A gain at this point would
allow them to reach the plateau of
Fleury, facing our Souville works. An
entire division was launched against the
positions which cover the Thiaumont
works to the north. In spite of re-
peated assaults, the regiments which
took part in it were everywhere held
back, the assailants suffering heavy
losses.

During Monday evening, June 12, an-
other assault was directed against the
sector to the west of Thiaumont, in the
direction of Bras. The Germans were
repulsed, but succeeded in gaining a
foothold in certain elements of trenches
covering the slopes of a ravine between
321-Meter Hill and 316-Meter Hill, on
the edge of the Nave Wood.

The Appalling Struggle at Fort Vaux

By Lieutenant C.

This letter, written by a French officer who took part in the last days' fighting before
the fall of Fort Vaux, gives a glimpse of the heroism of the defenders and the awful nature
of the combat.

WE had scarcely arrived at tne
right of Fort de Vaux, on
the slope of the ravine, when
there came an unprecedented bombard-
ment of twelve hours. Alone, in a sort of
dugout without walls, I pass twelve
hours of agony, believing that it is the
end. The soil is torn up, covered with
fresh earth by enormous explosions. In
front of us are not less than 1,200 guns
of 240, 305, 380, and 420 calibre, which
spit ceaselessly and all together, in these
days of preparation for attack. These
explosions stupefy the brain; you feel as
if your entrails were being torn out, your
heart twisted and wrenched; the shock
seems to dismember your whole body.
*• * * And then the wounded, the corpses !
Never had I seen such horror, such
hell. I felt that I would give everything
if only this would stop long enough to
clear my brain. Twelve hours alone, mo-
tionless, exposed, and no chance to risk a
leap to another place, so closely did the
fragments of shell and rock fall in hail
all day long. At last, with night, this di-
minished a little. I can go on into the
woods! The shells still burst all around
us, but their infernal din no longer
makes any impression on me — a queer
trait of the human temperament. After
that we are lodged in fortified caves
where we pass five days in seclusion,
piled on top of each other, without being
able to lie down.

I bury three comrades in a shell hole.
We are without water, and, with hands
that have just touched the poor mangled
limbs, we eat as if nothing were wrong.

We are taken back for two days into
a tunnel where the lacrymal shells make
us weep. Swiftly we put on our masks.
The next day, at the moment of taking
supper and retiring to rest, we are hasti-
ly called into rank; that's it — we are go-
ing to the motion-picture show. We pass
through an infernal barrage fire that

cracks red all around in the dark. We
run with all speed, in spite of our knap-
sacks, into the smother of broken
branches that used to be a forest. Scarce-
ly have we left a hole or a ditch when
shells as big as a frying pan fall on the
spot. We are laid flat by one that bursts
a few yards away. So many of them
fall at one time that we no longer pay
any attention to them. We tumble into
a ravine which we have named Death
Ravine. That race over shell-swept, open
country, without trenches, we shall long
remember.

At last we enter the village — without
suspecting that the Germans are there!
The commanding officer scatters us
along the steep hill to the left and says:
" Dig holes, quickly; the Boches are forty
yards away! " We laugh and do not be-
lieve him; immediately, cries, rifle shots
in the village; our men are freeing our
Colonel and Captain, who were already
prisoners. * * * Impossible! Then
there are no more Frenchmen there? In
two minutes the village is surrounded,
while the German batteries get a rude
jolt. It was time! All night long you
hear tools digging from one end to the
other; trenches are being made in haste,
but secretly. After that there is a
wall, and the Germans will advance no
further.

The next morning a formidable rumor —
the Boches are coming up to assault Fort
de Vaux. The newspapers have told the
facts; our 75s firing for six hours, the
German bodies piling up in heaps. Hor-
rible! but we applauded. Everybody went
out of the trenches to look. The Yser,
said the veterans, was nothing beside this
massacre.

That time I saw Germans fleeing like
madmen. * * * The next day, the same
thing over again ; they have the cynicism
to mount a battery on the slope; the Ger-
man chiefs must be hangmen to hurl their

854 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

troops to death that way in masses and
in broad dayli^it. All afternoon, a maxi-
mum bombardment; a wood is razed, a
hill ravaged with shell holes. It is mad-
dening; continuous salvos of "big char-
iots"; one sees the 380s and 420s fall-
ing; a continuous cloud of smoke every-
where. Trees leap into air like wisps of
straw; it is an unheard-of spectacle. It
is enough to make you lose your head,
yet we patiently wait for the outcome.

The barrage fire cuts our communica-
tion with the rear, literally barring off
the isthmus of Death Ravine. If the at-
tacks on our wings succeed, our two regi-
ments are prisoners, hemmed in, but the
veterans (fathers of families) declare,
that we shall not be taken alive, that we
will all fight till we die. It is sublime.

" Keep up your courage, coolness, and
morale, boys, and we will drive them
back in good time."

It is magnificent to see that our last
recourse is a matter of sheer will; de-
spite this monstrous machinery of mod-
ern war, a little moral effort, a will
twenty years old that refuses to weaken,
suffices to frustrate the offensive! The
rifles do not shoot enough, but we have
machine guns, the bayonet, and we have
vowed that they shall not pass. Twenty
times the alarm is given; along the hill-
side one sees the hands gripping the
rifles ; the eyes are a little wild, but show
an energy that refuses to give way.

Suddenly it is already night. A senti-
nel runs up to the outposts : " There they
are! Shoot!"

A whole section shoots. But are the
outposts driven in? Nobody knows. I
take my rifle to go and see. I do not
catch a ball. I find the sentinels flat on
their faces in their holes, and run to the

rear gesticulating and crying out orders
to cease firing. The men obey. I return
to the front, and soon, a hundred yards
away, I see a bush scintillate with a rapid
line of fire. This time it is they. Ta-
ca-ta-ca, bzzi — bzzi. I hold my fire until
they approach, but the welcome evidently
does not please them, for they tumble back
over the ridge, leaving some men behind.
One wounded cries, " Frantchmen! "

I am drunk, mad. Something moves
in the bushes to the right; I bound for-
ward with set bayonet. It is my brave
Sergeant, who has been out to see
whether the Roches have all run away.
* * * These are truly the most
interesting moments ,of war; no longer
the waiting, the anguish of bombardment,
but the thrill of a free march into a
glorious unknown — oh, that intoxication!
I sing the " Marseillaise," the boys jubi-
late, all the successive attacks have
failed. After this evening the offensive
is going to slacken for several days.

The next day we are relieved at last.
Another race with death, this time with
broad daylight shining upon the horrible
chaos, the innumerable dead, and a few
wounded here and there. Oh! those
mangled bodies, still unburied, abandoned
for the moment. The danger excites us.
A shell falls squarely among us, jarring
us and bathing us in flame. My knap-
sack gets a sliver of shell; I am not
touched; it is a miracle. In the evening
we arrive at the ford of D. and have
another race. The next day, at Verdun,
the Germans are still shelling us at the
moment when we mount the auto trucks.
In the course of all these actions our
losses certainly have been high, but they
are nothing compared with the frightful
and unimaginable hecatomb of Germans
I have witnessed.

Sir Edward Grey's Diplomacy

By George Bernard Shaw

Famous Irish Author and Playwright

The widely debated utterance by Sir Edward Grey which furnishes Mr. Shaw with
his text for the present article was published in full in the June issue of CURRENT HISTORY.

IT cannot be too clearly understood
that, for the ending of the war as
for its beginning, England is entire-
in the hands of her Foreign Office,
and that as long as Sir Edward Grey re-
mains Foreign Secretary her interests,
her honor, and, indeed, the future of Eu-
rope, as far as her diplomatic action can
affect it, are absolutely at the mercy of
Sir Edward's capacity and character.
This is a serious responsibility; and on
the most favorable estimate of Sir Ed-
ward's genius the British Empire will be
taking more chances than can be heartily
enjoyed by any one but a confirmed
gambler or a fanatical devotee of British
junker government. That is why it is
so startling to read, in an utterance of
his which must be presumed to be as
closely up to date as any utterance dur-
ing war time can be, assumptions, and
statements which have dropped out of
currency among serious students of the
war since public opinion began to steady
itself toward the middle of 1915.

Sir Edward, it apears, is still going to
negotiate on the assumption that he is
engaged in a crusade against certain
sentences written by Treitschke, for
which the German- Government and the
German Nation are no more responsible
(having mostly never read them) than
the British Nation and the British Gov-
ernment are responsible for precisely
similar sentences written by General
Butler and other English militarist
writers. And if the Imperial Chancellor
should take it into his head to negotiate
on the assumption that Germany is en-
gaged in a crusade against Lord Roberts's
British "will to conquer" and his as-
piration to save the world by bringing it
under the rule of gentlemen educated in
the public schools of England, we can
imagine what sort of understanding is

likely to be reached on these lines, and
how long it will take to reach it.

Sir Edward is still under the im-
pression that when Belgium appealed to
Germany, France, and Britain for a
pledge that her neutrality would be re-
spected, Germany refused it and Britain
and France gave it. This delusion may
have helped out our recruiting at a
moment when recruiting was the su-
preme consideration; but now that we
have compulsory military service, and
can afford to employ 200,000 soldiers as
officers' valets, and are therefore sure
of as many men in the army as we can
prudently spare from civil industry, it
is no longer necessary to resort to
such expedients. The truth is, as Sir Ed-
ward can easily ascertain from his own
White Papers, that each of the three
powers consented to respect the neutral-
ity of Belgium only on condition that
the other two did so as well, which meant
in effect on condition that the war did
not occur. We must look this Belgian
question straight in the face. The inde-
pendence of Belgium is as much out of
the question as the independence of Ire-
land, and always has been since she was
set up as a buffer State between the
great powers of the west of Europe. Un-
less and until Belgium can be placed un-
der the protection of a supernational or-
ganization stronger than any of the na-
tional powers or their militant alliances,
Belgium must fulfill her present destiny
of being, as both Sir Edward and the
Imperial Chancellor quite accurately call
her, "a bulwark" for England and
France against Germany. England is
our castle; but Belgium is its barbican;
and we cannot allow Belgium to sur-
render the barbican, nor can we hesitate,
if she cannot hold it against Germany, to
throw in our troops and defend it as if it

856 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

were Portsmouth, no matter how vigor-
ously Belgium may protest.

That is our position and also the
French position; and everybody in Eu-
rope knows it except the subscribers to
the London one-cent illustrated dailies.
Sir Edward and his colleagues secured
popular support at the beginning of the
war by holding up the neutrality of
Belgium as something so sacred that
only the very vilest of Huns would
raise a weapon against it or march a
regiment across a Belgian field. I ven-
tured to differ with Sir Edward to the
extent of saying that if our own mili-
tary success were at stake we would
violate the neutrality of heaven itself
rather than give a German soldier half
a chance of setting his foot in a Kent-
ish lane; and what has happened in
Greece has shown that I was precisely
right, even to the very instance I gave
of the landlocked country (Serbia)
which might put us to the test.

Now, Sir Edward still insists that Ger-
many must come to judgment on the neu-
trality question, even at the cost of giv-
ing away our own position in Greece as
morally indefensible. Fortunately I,
having in 1914 heroically resisted the
temptation to use The Hague Conference
and the 1839 treaty as a stick to beat
Germany with, am now able to say, with-
out making myself publicly ridiculous,
that military necessity justified Britain
in seizing the Greek islands and in claim-
ing a right of way for her ally Serbia
over the Greek railway through Athens,
and to repeat that the German attack on
France, a quite unnecessary breach of
the peace of Western Europe, is the true
Achilles heel of Germany's moral posi-
tion. My fear is that any plenipotentiary
of ours who goes into this difficult busi-
ness with his judgment obscured and his
attention distracted by pious horror at
the short work which war makes of the
moral recriminations of the military pot
and the military kettle will have no
chance against the German statesmen,
who, though apparently no cleverer than
our own, yet secure a considerable econ-
omy of discussion and directness of aim
by hacking their way through moral
humbug, and discarding, for European

as distinguished from domestic consump-
tion, the Pecksniffian airs which impose
on nobody outside their own constituen-
cies, and only on the stupid and ignorant
inside them.

The point is of cardinal importance
because, I repeat, we cannot be too clear
about the Belgian question. Our po-
sition is that until the present military
basis of international relations is under-
pinned by a basis of supernational law,
Belgium must be independent of Ger-
many. The German position is that
Belgium must be independent of France
and Britain. What both belligerents
really mean is that Belgium, though
nominally independent of them, and in-
deed really so in peace, must in war
side with one or the other of them; and
naturally each desires the power of com-
pelling her to side with it against the
ether. Now if this difference is to be
settled by the belligerents only, it must
be settled by blood and iron and not by
Christmas cards and governesses' lect-
ures. Germany being in possession of
Belgium, and therefore in a position to
say, with Wagner's dragon, " Ich liege
und besitze," Britain must drive Ger-
many out by fighting her or starving
her. And Germany must hold Belgium
tooth and nail against us to the utmost
effort short of suicide she is capable of.

There is, however, a possible alterna-
tive. If the so-called neutral countries
were to step in for the sake of putting
an end to the intolerable situation that
will arise (if it has not already arisen)
from the establishment of a deadlock on
the western front in which, though both
sides may keep feeding in fresh drafts
of men to be slaughtered every year,
neither can shift the other, and were
to make Belgium really independent
both of Britain, France, and Germany
by themselves combining to guarantee
her soil against invasion, the belliger-
ents would eagerly accept the guaran-
tee the moment they became convinced
that they were engaged in a Kilkenny
cat fight; for both sides could claim to
have achieved the independence of Bel-
gium by a chivalrous feat of arms.

The initiative in such an intervention
should come from America. A month

SIR EDWARD GREY'S DIPLOMACY

857

ago Britain had bright hopes of America
coming in on her side. Those hopes have
been shot away by General Maxwell in
Ireland for the present; and in spite of
the powerful war interests which exist in
America, and which were revealed to
London by well-circulated reports of the
action of Mr. Tavenner in Congress last
December, London and Washington are
now back at the point reached in 1914,
when I appealed through the press to
President Wilson to come to the rescue of
Belgium, and incidentally of the peace
and order of Europe, by interfering on
her behalf in the name of outraged hu-
manity, without waiting for any specif-
ically American grievance or leaning to
either the British or the German side.
Now that the Lusitania case is settled,
the United States is again in the strong
moral position of having no axe of her
own to grind nor wrongs of her own to
avenge. And I still believe that she must
settle the Belgian question by moral force
if neither the British nor the Germans can
settle it by force of arms. Indeed, she
ought to settle it anyhow in the interests
of civilization; but as things are I must
not pretend that the belligerents would
unanimously welcome her interference if
either saw its way to a victory that it
could afford. The Imperial Chancellor is
right when he says that there can be no
status quo ante; but the substitution of a
guarantee of Belgium by the compara-
tively disinterested powers for the
present guarantee by powers who guar-
antee her only to have a grip on her
throat would not be the status quo ante;
and an acceptance of it would be a con-
cession to the public opinion of the civil-
ized world and not to the threats of a foe
in arms. Sir Edward Grey's reply to the
Chancellor that without the status quo
ante " Belgium's independence is gone, as
Serbia's and Montenegro's is gone, unless
the Allies can get them up again," will
not stand half an hour's consideration.
The world, let us hope, is not yet so com-
pletely bankrupt that nothing good can
be done unless the Allies do it.

When Sir Edward forgets that he is
Foreign Secretary and remembers only
his political, idealism he speaks like a
man in a trance, the world forgetting, but

unfortunately not by the world forgot.
No doubt he is quite right in advising
the Germans to make a revolution. The
Germans not only gave the same advice
to the Irish, but contributed rifles and
ammunition as well. For that matter,
there is not a country in the civilized
world that would not be the better for
^revolution once a fortnight or so. But
I confess I wish Sir Edward would not
call himself "we" when he is speaking
for himself and his dreams alone, and
is ignoring the most glaring facts of
the situation. It would not matter if,
like so many of our patriotic tub thump-
ers, his words traveled no further than
the circulations of a cheap illustrated
paper, or the walls of a public hall in
England, or the railings of a London
park. But Sir Edward, like myself, is
quoted throughout Europe and America;
and he should be more careful than I am,
because he is the uncontrolled agent of
Britain's foreign policy, instead of which
he recklessly says things that would de-
stroy my credit forever.

We all know that he was not prepared
for war, because he never is prepared for
anything that actually happens in the
crude concrete world, even when it is
thundering down on him like a mad mo-
tor bus ; but when, in the teeth of the as-
surances of the British Admiralty and
the British War Office, through his own
Ministerial colleagues, that the command
in Flanders was settled five years before
the war began and that the British com-
mander was studying the field during
that period, and that the navy was fully
prepared with five years' accumulation
of ammunition, not to mention the fact
that it would have been grossly dishon-
orable and criminally negligent of Brit-
ain if, after her understanding with
France, she had neglected these precau-
tions, Sir Edward declares that "we"
were not prepared for war, the impres-
sion he produces on Europe is that the
Machiavellian Grey of the German imag-
ination answers to the reality. Again,
when he says that " poisonous fumes were
rejected by us as too horrible for civilized
people to use," the amazed foreigner asks
whether the British Foreign Secretary
can really be unaware that Britain has-

858 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

tened to use them the moment the Ger-
mans demonstrated their practicability.

Surely, the foreigner thinks, Britain
should blame herself for letting the
Germans anticipate her lazy conserva-
tism, as in the case of the Zeppelins,
rather than plume herself on an affect-
ed humanity, of which war can know
less and less until science reduces it to
impossibility.

As to Sir Edward's fine old Whig
dreams of nationalism and political
freedom, and his "We want a Europe
free," " France, Russia, and Italy are in
the war to preserve everything that is
precious to nationality," what effect
must they produce on the neutral world,
to say nothing of our highly critical
enemies, when they see that national in-
dependence is now an impracticable
superstitution, and that France in Mo-
rocco, Italy in Dalmatia, and Russia in
Poland are no more aiming at freedom
and national independence than Austria
in Bohemia, Germany in Posen and
Schleswig-Holstein, Britain in Egypt,
India, or Ireland, or the United States
(if they are wise) in Mexico? What
sense is there in saying these things now
to a world which can see nothing in them
but the celebrated British hypocrisy
which The London Times confesses
and defends with affectionate pride as
the homage Englishmen pay to virtue,
and at a moment, too, when every ear is
strained to catch the words of the auto-
crat of our Foreign Office?

And, oh! will Sir Edward never forgive
or forget that rude omission of the Cen-
tral Empires to come and talk it over
quietly with him when the fat was in the
fire, and every moment's delay, if there
was to be a war, was adding an ounce to
the weight of the threatening Russian
steam roller? The Balkan difficulty
proved how soothing the conversation of
Sir Edward can be to men who do not
mean to fight; but when their minds
changed, and they were prepared to fight
in certain contingencies, all Europe
shrieked to Sir Edward Grey that
straight question as to whether in these
contingencies he was going to fight or
not. Professor Gilbert Murray had writ-

ten a most conclusive book, with all the
quotations from Sir Edward in italics,
proving that he replied that peace was
the immediate jewel of England's soul.
When popular pugnacity revolted against
this view, Mr. William Archer wrote an-
other book proving up to the hilt that Sir
Edward had, on the contrary, thrown his
blood-stained sword in thunder down, and
left no possible doubt as to our bellicose
intentions. In <?hort, Sir Edward having
thought it best to shilly-shally, one of his
two ablest literary friends collected all
the shilly and the other all the shally,
leaving the world to judge what the Ger-
mans were likely to have made of it when
the one chance of averting war was to
convince them bluntly that if they took on
the French Republic they would have to
take on the British Empire, too.

It may be that this was good states-
manship and that it was better to lure
Germany to her doom and have it out
with her once and for all. Or it may
be that if the Germans had accepted
that invitation to confer Sir Edward
would have soothed them, and we should
now all be taking our stalls for Bayreuth
and our circular tickets for the Black
Forest. But what is the use of going
back to all that now? The Germans did
not walk into Sir Edward's parlor; and
by this time his obsession with their un-
kindness has worn out its interest. The
Allies have now either to win the war or
at least prevent Germany from win»4ng
it; and the old moralizings and recrimi-
nations of 1914 will not help us — will, in
fact, hinder us most dangerously if our
statesmen keep chewing them over in-
stead of tackling the problem in front
of them and dealing with it in terms of
the strictest objectivity. Sir ' Edward's
column and a half of assurances that the
English are the natural administrators of
Divine justice and that the Germans must
be classed with " footpads, safe-breakers,
burglars, and incendiaries," will not put
a single German gun out of action, and
may strain the patience of the neutrals
with British self-love and their faith in
British statesmanship to the point of
doubting whether any material advan-
tages can secure success to a side which
talks like that, not only under the first

SIR EDWARD GREY'S DIPLOMACY

shock of war, but after nearly two years'
reflection.

As I write these words the world is
all discussing Sir Edward Grey's very
latest utterance. The Imperial Chancel-
lor has said that Sir Edward threatened
war when Austria violated the treaty of
Berlin by practically annexing Bosnia.
The obvious reply to that was, " The
Imperial Chancellor has paid me a com-
pliment I do not deserve." The reply
actually made by Sir Edward is, " That
is .a first-class lie." This is a very typ-
ical sample of Sir Edward's temper and
manners. When Turkey threw in her
lot with Germany in the war the Foreign
Office -announced that fact in a docu-
ment which described our former pro-
teges as " the degenerate Turks." And
the Foreign Office would probably have
been just as rude if it could have fore-
seen Gallipoli and Kut. Apparently it
has not character enough to observe even
the scrupulous civilities of a common
duel, much less a conflict of empires.
What likelihood is there of any nego-

tiations turning out happily if this is the
style in which they are to be conducted?
Already the Chancellor has been able to
compel Mr. Asquith to climb down by
saying, " If you take that tone, negotia-
tions will be concluded before tbey have
been begun." Yet Mr. Asquith was not
personally offensive, and readily ex-
plained when the remonstrance came to
hand. Sir Edward Grey has thrown in
the Chancellor's face a personal insult
for which, according to the Continental
code, he ought to offer " satisfaction,"
(with pistols.) We may have an extra
month of war because Sir Edward has
lost his temper.

As long ago as 1906, in referring to a
very horrible episode in the history of our
occupation of Egypt, I expressed my
opinion that Sir Edward Grey was unfit-
ted by his character and the limitations of
his capacity for the highly specialized
work of a Secretary of State for For-
eign Affairs. Nothing that has happened
since has shaken that opinion.

An Austrian Reply to Sir Edward Grey

By Baron Burian

Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs

In a letter read by Count Tisza, Prime
Minister, before the Hungarian Parlia-
ment on June 14, Baron Burian asserted
that Serbia had been a tool of Russian
aggression, and that Austria-Hungary
was " drawn into this world war by the
menace to the foundations of its exist-
ence." Baron Burian continued:

THE British Foreign Secretary denies
the assertion of the Imperial Chan-
cellor that, during the crisis in
Russian policy after the annexation of
Bosnia, England did not side with the
parties striving for a settlement, but en-
deavored to aggravate the differences be-
tween Russian and Austria-Hungary and
Germany. The British statesman calls
this a first-class lie, and denies that Eng-
land endeavored to stir up war over
Bosnia. What Sir Edward Grey wanted

he must know best himself, but it is cer-
tain, as Dr. Bethmann Hollweg proved,
that in Petrograd the British representa-
tive, who was a confidential adviser of
the Russian Government, tried by every
means in his power to stir up the differ-
ences that had arisen about the Bosnian
question between Russia and us, and
finally he expressed his disapproval and
disappointment that the Russian Govern-
ment had at last yielded to the accom-
plished fact, owing to the firm attitude
of the monarchy and Germany. This is
also confirmed by the report of our Pe-
trograd Ambassador on March 6, 1909,
in which he said that the British Em-
bassy and its satellites showed great
zeal in assisting M. Isvolsky in his policy
of bluff.
When St. Petersburg again listened to

860 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

common sense and the inclination to stir
up war had decreased in Russian circles,
owing to' the firm attitude of Austria-
Hungary and Germany, the recognition
of the situation was forced on M. Isvol-
sky, as stated by our Ambassador on
April ' 4, and without listening to the
British the Czar's advisers went to
Tsarskoe Selo and informed the Czar of
the critical situation, whereupon approval
was given to the abolition of Article 25
of the Berlin Treaty. The same day
our Ambassador reported that the
change had been accomplished, which
did not escape the vigilance of the
British diplomacy, and it endeavored
to utilize this change for its final
aims.

The British Ambassador, Sir Arthur
Nicolson, now experimented with senti-
mentality, and attempted in this manner
to widen the differences between the
Central Powers and Russia. It is known
how the English press assisted the Brit-
ish Ambassador at Petrograd. From the
reports of our foreign representatives
and those of Germany we perceive how
little reliable they considered the peace
policy of England.

[Baron Burian then dwells on the
Balkan conference in London, and says
that Sir Edward Grey's attitude was well
intentioned in so far as he endeavored
* to further the solution of pending ques-
tions. Grey also was well meaning when,
in dealing with a diverging standpoint,
he did not conceal that close political re-
lations with Russia did not allow Eng-
land complete impartiality.]

At that time none of the great powers
was openly challenged. But at the end
of July, 1914, it was England alone, if
she had really cared to maintain the
peace, that could have saved it, if she
had not backed up Russia when the lat-
ter opposed our justified attitude toward
Serbia, and had declared her neutrality.
But today the causes of the world war
are of no practical importance, but only
the question — and therein I completely
agree with the English Foreign Secre-
tary— of who is responsible for the fur-
ther prolongation of the war. Sir Ed-
ward Grey says the war will not come to
an end because the Central Powers con-

sider themselves the victors and the En-
tente defeated, but that the Entente will
not be defeated. Of course, we cannot
order the Entente to admit its defeat, or
to abandon hope of a favorable change in
the situation. But in face of the clear
facts things cannot be turned upside
down.

If Sir Edward Grey believes that the
Entente is not defeated, the Central
Powers, with all due respect, can point
out that they are still less defeated. A
glance at the war situation decides the
question of which party is taking up a
standpoint quite out of keeping with the
real situation. The reality is that, as
the reward of our just cause and the
superhuman efforts of our heroic troops,
the scales of the world war in all the war
theatres are in favor of our Quadruple
Alliance, and that we shall not allow suc-
cess to be snatched from us. We were
dragged into war by, force and in self-
defense. This we shall never forget.
After our splendid victories our aim in
the war is to strengthen and make last-
ing our safeguards against repetitions
of such malicious attacks. We make
no exaggerated demands, but these
safeguards we shall forge hard in
the fire of battle and our holy en-
thusiasm.

Heaven alone knows how many ham-
mer blows will still be necessary before
we can rest on this new foundation for
our Fatherland. In co-operation with
her faithful allies, Austria-Hungary will
not stop on the toilsome road of the de-
velopment of our heroic strength before
the final victory is attained. As is well
known, our enemies expect the turning
point in the fortune of war to come
from those great and united efforts
which they have already prepared long
since, and from our exhaustion in all
directions. We have done everything,
and will do everything, without hesita-
tion, that is necessary for the frustra-
tion of their intentions, and, relying on
God's help, we hope that these expecta-
tions of our enemies will meet with com-
plete disappointment. By prolonging the
war they can only cause more suffering,
but they will not be able to arrest the
iron tread of fate. The peaceable dis-

AN AUSTRIAN REPLY TO SIR EDWARD GREY

861

position of the monarchy cannot be
doubted, but, adopting Sir Edward Grey's
words of May 10, we also can say that

Austria-Hungary and her comrades in
arms cannot " suffer a peace which would
not make good the crime of this war."

The Mistakes of the Allies

By Count Julius Andrassy

Hungarian Deputy and Former Minister

Count Andrassy was asked recently by a representative of the Tagliche Rundschau of
Berlin if he thought that the present war might have been avoided. His reply, translated for
CURRENT HISTORY, is embodied in this article.

NEITHER Austria-Hungary nor
Germany wanted the war.
Austria-Hungary, however, was
obliged to insist that Serbia's
intrigues be punished and atoned for.
Austria did not wish to give up its polit-
ical rights. The Austro-Hungarian Gov-
ernment did not believe that the
Czar of Russia would play the role
of protector of assassins, but was
firmly convinced that Russia would
abandon Serbia and hand it over.
The very fact that the Czar protected
Serbia and the Serbian instigators of as-
sassination showed that Russia had de-
cided upon war long ago. The defense of
Serbia at all hazards started the war, a
war which once begun was in the nature
of things bound to develop into a world
conflagration. After the deed at Sera-
jevo Austria could no longer allow
Serbia to menace the stability of Aus-
tria-Hungary and promote, both openly
and in secret, the ideas of the South-
Slavic Pan-Slavists.

But the friends of Serbia made a
grievous mistake. When our enemies,
be they called Frenchmen, Englishmen,
Italians, or anything else, even today,
after the sword of the Central Powers
has administered to them one severe de-
feat after the other, keep their mouths
filled wiith talk of confidence in victory,
it is mere phrase making. A glance at
the present military situation is enough
proof of the truth of these words.

Let us take, for example, the French.
To me it seems indisputable that France
will and must bleed to death at Verdun.
That France entered into the war at

once is politically comprehensible and in-
telligible. The thought of "revanche"
had lain in the Frenchmen's blood since
Sedan. And, believe me, France would
have drawn the sword still sooner if she
had felt herself strong enough to do so
alone. Already in the 80s Bismarck laid
stress upon the fact that, despite mutual
attempts at understanding, despite the
cooling off of the idea of " revanche,"
France would attack Germany the mo-
ment she became possessed by the delu-
sion that she would be the victor in this
bloody passage at arms. This fact has
not been changed an iota by all the ef-
forts for peace made by individual
statesmen and parties, nor by all the
agitation in favor of living side by side
in peace.

In July, 1914, Russia shielded murder-
ous Serbia, the war began, and, political-
ly, lit was a matter of course that France
fell upon Germany in an attack that she
had secretly longed for during many
years.

And today? After such a long world
war? I go so far as to declare that we
can no longer be defeated on the field
of battle, neither in the West nor in the
East, neither in the Southeast nor in the
South.

And just because of this in March last
year the English declared the economic
war that scoffs at every article of inter-
national law. England and Germany.
There is a chapter of world politics in
itself. Germany did not hate England,
nor did Germany seek England's life;
just the reverse. When the world was
still in complete peace the spectre of in-

862 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

vasion was raised again and again in
England. In England, through word and
pen and picture, the great mass of the
people had been forced into the delusion
that Germany wanted a war with Eng-
land, that Germany wanted to swallow
up England. Germany would appear on
English soil some day with its armies
and destroy everything.

Consequently it is the biggest kind of
a political lie when the English states-
men continue to assert that England was
forced to take up arms in order to pro-
tect Belgium. Oh, no! the constant and
long-continued open and secret inciitation
of hatred against Germany in England
was the only thing that made it possible
for the English Government to take a
hand in the war, not to protect Belgium,
but to destroy Germany's dreaded and
annoying competition. Or does any sen-
sible man really believe that the year-
long anti-German agitation and, I might
say, cultivation of the spectre of inva-
sion, was, or could have been, unknown
to the English Government? Impossible,
for the gentlemen of the English Govern-
ment surely know how to read, and they
are very shrewd.

England, too, has made a mistake re-
garding this war. To be sure, we hear
the old phrases repeated in the speeches
by Messrs. Grey and Asquith, but their
words lack substance. The broth is still
there, but the bits of meat, that is, the
demands for the destruction of militar-
ism and the smashing of Germany, are
all missing. They still talk about the sal-
vation of Belgium. That England really
entered the war for that purpose is cer-
tainly no longer believed by any one. But
because England, in order to destroy
Germany, brought upon itself all the sac-
rifices entailed by the world war, and
now, after twenty-two months of fight-
ing, finds itself in the position of the
worried tanner whose hides have floated
beyond his reach, England is really the
most undeceived of all the belligerents.
Besides the ridicule, there is naturally
the damage which will result from Eng-
land being compelled to pay very dearly
for having played the fool.

The only thing to be said about the
Italians is that they have cut themselves

to the very quick by committing treason
and breaking faith. Italy could have had
everything for nothing, and now all she
will get for nothing wiill be blows, and
nothing else. The results of this world
war for Italy wil^l be the following: The
loss through her own folly of the friend-
ship of the Central Powers, the odium
attached to treason, and failure to win
the genuine friendship of her new allies.
Italy followed the same policy as before.

Germany does not pursue a policy of
conquest. The aim in the East and in the
West is not the acquisition of land or an
increase in territory, but the securing of
the safety of the borders. In the West,
as well as tin the East and South, there
must be a guarantee against a hostile
attack. What is necessary will probably
have to be annexed, but nothing more.
So far as Poland is concerned, I have al-
ready declared openly on several occa-
sions that a partition of Poland would
be the greatest mistake. The war must
not bring a realization of the shibboletn:
" The fourth division of Poland." The
Poles would regard that as annihilation.

As for the Entente talk of disrupting
the Hapsburg monarchy, Austria-Hun-
gary is not so divided politically as her
enemies pretend. In our internal affairs
we, too, have our battles and our feuds,
but unity has always prevailed in the
foreign policy of Austria-Hungary.
Neither is it true that enmtity existed be-
tween Austria and Hungary. I person-
ally am the leader of a party that has
already had the sharpest conflicts, but
in the matter of foreign policy we were
always guided by nothing but the inter-
ests of the common monarchy. Austria-
Hungary will also hold out economically
during the war, and the world will wit-
ness our economic collapse just as little
as it will that of Germany.

The end of the war will be coincident
with the arrival of the moment when our
opponents recognize this, when they
finally become honest and admit to
themselves that they had lost their rea-
son in deluding themselves with the idea
that they were able to smash Germany
to pieces. This recognition will come. It
must come. Then we shall have peace
again.

H. R. H. EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES

Prince Edward, Now 22 Years Old, Is Captain of the Grenadier Guards
and Is Called in England "Our Soldier Prince'

RUDYARD KIPLING

The Most Popular English Poet of Our Day, Whose Thrilling
of British Submarine Achievement? Appear? in Thi« I«<SMP of

Current History

(Phntn -rnnfl? //>» Thr J.nn'1»n ftjilifre)

Le^t We Forget

Who's Responsible for the World's Greatest War
By Richard Dobson

[A look backward at the end of the first two years of war]

ON the 23d day of June, 1914,
Francis Ferdinand, Archduke and
nephew of the Emperor of Aus-
tria, also Commander in Chief of
the Austro-Hungarian Army and heir to
the throne, left Vienna to review army
manoeuvres in the Province of Bosnia.
On Sunday, the 28th day of June, he
visited Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia.
The Archduke and his wife, the Duchess
of Hornberg, rode in their automobile
through the streets of Serajevo, and at
a certain point of their progress they
were fired upon by an assassin and both
were killed.

Few crimes have aroused deeper hor-
ror throughout Europe and the world
at large. Public opinion and the Gov-
ernments of Europe were ready to up-
hold Austria-Hungary in any measure,
however severe, that the Austrian Gov-
ernment might think necessary for the
punishment of the assassin and. his
accomplices.

It was immediately apparent from
the reports of representatives from the
various capitals of Europe that the pub-
lic of Austria-Hungary, as represented
through the press, attributed the greater
part of the responsibility of the das-
tardly crime to the Serbian Government,
which, they said, had encouraged a revo-
lutionary spirit and thus brought about
a revolutionary movement among the
Serbian population of Bosnia and Herze-
govina.

There is no question that there had
been a strong Serb agitation for years
previous to the murder of the Archduke
and his wife, in the two provinces of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. This same agi-
tation and revolutionary movement swept
the provinces, (antedating the rule of
Austria, and while they were yet a part
of the Turkish Empire,) during the early

seventies, followed by the war of 1877-
1878 between Turkey and Russia. At
the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, Austria
was given the administration of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Austria gave her
pledge to Turkey that her occupation of
the provinces should not interfere with
the sovereignty of the Sultan of Turkey
over them.

In 1908 Austria suddenly proclaimed
the annexation of these provinces. On
Oct. 7 of that year the annexation was
celebrated at Serajevo— the city which,
nearly six years later, was to witness
the murder of the heir to the Austrian
throne — by the firing of salutes and the
ringing of the great cathedral bells, amid
scenes of official rejoicing, but of popu-
lar indifference and apathy.

The Serbian Government at the time
protested to the powers of Europe
against the annexation as an insult and
injury to the rights of the Serbian
people. A war cloud loomed up omi-
nously. Russia and several of the powers
showed resentment, but after six months'
tension Serbia was induced to abandon
her claim and promised to live on good
terms with Austria.

But Serbia was dissatisfied. Her na-
tional aspirations were not quenched,
and were strengthened by her successes
in the Balkan war of 1912-1913, a suc-
cess which was, however, restrained by
Austria in her opposition to Serbia's
territorial expansion. As Serbia grew
Austria's jealousy and suspicion of Ser-
bian designs grew also.

The assassination of the Crown Prince
sent a wave of anti- Serbian passion over
Austria. Mobs in Vienna threatened the
Serbian Legation. The entire Austrian
press used severe and unbridled lan-
guage, calling for quick punishment of
the Serbian people. Rioters at Sera-

864 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

jevo and Agram demanded vengeance on
the Serb population, and the members of
the Serb party in the Provincial Council
of Croatia were assailed by their col-
leagues with cries of " Serbian assas-
sins." Signs were strongly in evidence
that the popular resentment was en-
couraged and shared by the Austrian
Government.

In view of these conditions, the dis-
interested powers sought to wield their
influence in the direction of reconciling
justice with peace. Though the attitude
of public opinion in Austria, and perhaps
to a less degree in Germany, was very
plain, the intentions of the Austrian Gov-
ernment remained obscure. The Aus-
trian Foreign Office was exceedingly
reticent, especially with the British and
Russian Ambassadors.

On July 7 the Austrian Government
announced that the joint meeting of
Austro-Hungarian Cabinets which had
just taken place was only concerned with
the question of domestic measures to
repress the Pan-Serb propaganda in
Bosnia. On the 8th day of July the
Hungarian Minister, President of Hun-
gary, made a pacific speech in the Hun-
garian Parliament defending the Serb
subjects of the empire and eulogizing
their loyalty.

July 11 the Serbian Minister at Vienna
said that there was no reason to antici-
pate a threatening communication from
the Austrian Government, and as late as
July 22, 1914, the day before the ulti-
matum of the Austrian Government was
received at Belgrade, the Minister-Presi-
dent of Hungary stated in the Hungarian
Parliament that the situation did not
warrant the opinion that a serious turn
of events was necessary, or even prob-
able.

It was known that Serbia had made
known her readiness to accept any de-
mands compatible with the sovereignty
of an independent State. It was also
known that the French, Russian, and
German Governments held to the belief
that the Serbian Government was not to
blame for the crime, but that she must
be ready to investigate, as well as put
an end to, the murderous propaganda
that had led up to it. It was also be-

lieved that it originated, partly, at least,
on Serbian soil.

Sir Edward Grey, the English Foreign
Secretary, advised Serbia to conduct her-
self in a spirit of moderation and con-
ciliation. He also promised the German
Ambassador at London to use his influ-
ence in the same way with the Russian
Government. What more could be done
at the time? There was no actual evi-
dence that Serbian territory had been
made the base of revolutionary opera-
tions against Austria-Hungary. The
Serbian Government also stated that the
two assassins implicated were both Aus-
trian subjects, and that on a former oc-
casion the Austrian Government had in-
formed the Serbian Government that one
of the assassins was perfectly harmless
and was under their protection.

It was generally assumed that before
Austria took any definite action she
would disclose to the public her case
against Serbia.

The Triple Alliance and the Triple
Entente remained just as they had been
for years. Said Sir Edward Grey to
the German Ambassador: " We have
been quite recently assured that no new
secret element had been introduced into
the Triple Alliance, and that the Triple
Entente remained unchanged so far as
England was concerned, and with France
and Russia also, so far as we know."
As late as May 23, 1914, the Russian
Minister for Foreign Affairs had reaf-
firmed that the policy of the Russian
State was as before, the Balkans for the
Balkans, and it was known that any at-
tack on a Balkan State by any great
European power would be regarded as a
menace to that policy.

As late as June 29, 1914, the Austrian
Ambassador said to the English Foreign
Secretary that " Serbia was regarded by
them as being in the Austrian sphere of
influence." Sir Edward replied: " If
Serbia is to be humiliated, then most
assuredly Russia could not remain indif-
ferent and would not."

Sir Edward Grey said further: " It
was not a question of the policy of Rus-
sian statesmanship at St. Petersburg, but
of the deep hereditary feeling for the
Balkan populations bred in the Russian

LEST WE FORGET

805

people for more than two centuries of
development." This was known in Euro-
pean diplomacy in the past; it was one
of the facts of the European situation,
the product of the centuries. Patient
work for years might change it, but you
couldn't push it aside in a day.

On July 23, 1914, Austria showed her
hand. She delivered an ultimatum at
Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and re-
quired an answer absolute within forty-
eight hours. Ten demands were made
on Serbia, as follows: The suppression
of newspapers and literature, the sup-
pression of nationalist societies, a reor-
ganization of Government schools, the
dismissal of officers from the army, the
participation of Austrian officers in ju-
diciary proceedings in Serbia, the pre-
vention of all traffic in arms across the
frontier, a full explanation of anti- Aus-
trian utterances, immediate notification
of the enforcement of these measures,
the Serbian Government to publish on
the front page of the official journal a
prescribed statement amounting to a full
recantation of her alleged errors, and a
promise of amendment.

To these ten demands was annexed a
very brief summary of the secret trial at
Serajevo, without any corroborative evi-
dence attached.

What independent nation could accept
such an ultimatum and be worthy of
independent national existence? Only
twelve days intervened between this ulti-
matum and the declaration of war be-
tween Great Britain and Germany. In
the whirl of negotiations which ensued
there was scarcely time for pondering.

When Sir Edward Grey learned of the
ultimatum through the Austrian Ambas-
sador at London he expressed grave
alarm. There was no time to advise
Russia or to influence Serbia. At this
critical moment everything depended on
Germany. Great Britain during those
momentous forty-eight hours made three
attempts at peace for Europe. Above all
things the time limit of the ultimatum
must be extended. Russia and Great
Britain urged this at Vienna. Great
Britain also urged Germany to join in
pressing the matter on the Austrian Gov-
ernment. Berlin simply consented to

" pass on " the British message to
Vienna.

Sir Edward Grey then urged that
•Great Britain, France, Germany, and
Italy should work together at Vienna and
St. Petersburg for conciliation. France
assented. Italy assented. Russia de-
clared herself ready to compromise, and
Germany said that she had no objections,
if the relation between Austria and
Russia became threatening.

Then the Russian, French, and British
representatives at Belgrade were in-
structed to advise Serbia to go as far as
possible to meet Austria. But it was too
late. Austria would not extend the time
limit. Serbia, however, anticipated the
advice of Russia, France, and Great Brit-
ain, for on the afternoon of the 25th of
July, 1914, several hours before the time
limit had expired, Serbia made reply to
the Austrian ultimatum. The reply was
an entire acceptance of the Austrian de-
mands, subject to the necessary delay in
passing new laws and the amending of
her Constitution, and subject also to an
explanation of Austria-Hungary as to her
precise wishes with regard to the partici-
pation of Austro-Hungarian officials in
Serbian judicial proceedings.

Serbia's reply went far beyond what
any of the great powers, not even except-
ing Germany, had thought possible for
Serbia to submit to. The same day, the
25th of July, the British Ambassador at
Vienna reported to his home. Government
that the tone of the Austrian press left
the impression that a settlement was not
desired, and he later reported to his home
Government that the impression left on
his mind was that the Austrian note was
so drawn up as to make war inevitable.

In spite of the conciliatory nature of
Serbia's reply, the Austrian Minister left
Belgrade that very evening, July 25,
1914. Serbia then ordered a general
mobilization of her army. The Serbian
reply to Austria had been wired to Sir
Edward Grey at London, and he im-
mediately wired Berlin that he hoped
Germany would urge Austria to jiccont.
Germany again contented herself with
merely " passing on " the expression of
Sir Edward's hope to Vienna through
the German Ambassador there. The

866 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

fate of such a message " passed on " may
be guessed from the fact that the Ger-
man Ambassador told the British Am-
bassador shortly afterward that Serbia
had only made a pretense of giving way,
and that all her pretenses to concession
were a mere sham.

Austria declared war on Serbia July
28, 1914; on July 29, Russia ordered
partial mobilization, and Austrian troops
were bombarding Belgrade, Serbia's cap-
ital. On the 29th of July, Sir Edward
Grey, at about 4 o'clock P. M., wired to
Berlin once more on representations more
favorable made by the German Ambas-
sador in London, and also in accordance
with a request from the Russian Govern-
ment, " Urging the German Government,
if they did not like the Ambassador's
conference, to suggest any other form
they pleased. Mediation," said Sir Ed-
ward Grey, " was ready to come into
operation by any method that Germany
thought proper, if only Germany would
press the button in the interests of
peace,"

About midnight of the 29th day of
July a telegram was received at the
British Foreign Office from the English
Ambassador at Berlin. He said: "The
German Chancellor sent for me late at
night and propounded the following ques-
tion: Would Great Britain promise to
remain neutral in a war, provided Ger-
many did not touch Holland and took
nothing from France but her colonies ? "
The German Chancellor refused to
give any undertaking that Germany
would not invade Belgium, but promised
that, if Belgium remained pass've, no
territory would be taken away from
her.

Sir Edward Grey's answer was a flat
refusal, but contained the following ex-
hortation: " The business of Europe was
to work for peace; and that was the only
question with which Great Britain was
concerned. If Germany would now prove
by her actions that she desired peace,
Great Britain would warmly welcome a
future agreement with her whereby the
whole weight of the two nations would
be thrown permanently into the scale of
peace in years to come."

Up to and including the 29th day of

July the only conflict had been on the
frontiers of Serbia and Austria; the chief
fear was an outbreak between Russia and
Austria. Russia had declared that she
desired nothing greater than a period
of peace to work up her internal imr
provement and advancement. Germany
had declared that her interests were for
peace, and France said that she would
not fight except to help her ally.

There seemed, on the face of things,
no insuperable difficulty in keeping the
peace of Europe. But the inquiry of
the German Chancellor let the cat out
of the bag. Great Britain now knew
that Germany was contemplating an at-
tack on France. She knew also that the
independence of the Low Countries, Bel-
gium, Holland, and Denmark, had for
generations been considered one of the
greatest obstacles to a general war, a
strong lever for the peace and good-will
of Europe. The neutrality of Belgium
had been devised and consecrated as a
safeguard by two international treaties
signed by all the great powers of Europe
and recognized by at least two genera-
tions of European statesmen. Germany
had shown her hand and was ready to
smash the main pivot of the concert of
Europe. Having decided upon a war
with France, Belgium was of supreme
importance to Germany. She undoubt-
edly assumed that if she failed to occupy
Belgium, France would, most likely, do
so. Acting on that suspicion, Germany
took the initiative; but the neutrality of
Belgium had not been devised as a pre-
text for war, but to prevent war.

The British Government therefore on
July 31 asked the German and French
Governments for an agreement to respect
Belgian neutrality, and the Belgian Gov-
ernment for an engagement to uphold it.
France gave the necessary engagement
the same day, Belgium the day after;
but Germany made no reply. Silence was
the gauntlet of defiance thrown down.
German designs were alarmingly ap-
parent. Late on the evening of July 29
Russia had offered to stop all military
preparations if Austria would recognize
that her conflict with Serbia had become
a question of general European interest
and would eliminate from her ultimatum

LEST WE FORGET

867

the points which involved a violation of
Serbian sovereignty.

On the 31st day of July Russia in-
formed the British Government that Aus-
tria had at last agreed to discuss the
whole question of her ultimatum to Ser-
bia, a thing that she had refused to do
in the early days of the crisis. For a
time there was a gleam of hope. It was
suddenly quenched, however, when Ger-
many on that very day dispatched an
ultimatum to Russia that she must
countermand her mobilization within
twelve hours. (Yet at that very time
mobilization had proceeded much fur-
ther in Germany than in Russia, though
general mobilization was not publically
proclaimed in Germany until the follow-
ing day, Aug. 1.) France began to mobil-
ize on Aug. 1. The last proposal made
by Sir Edward Grey that joint action
should be taken between Germany,
France, and Italy until Russia's answer
should be received, was refused by Ger-
many, and on that selfsame day the Ger-
man Ambassador at St. Petersburg pre-
sented a declaration of war.

Yet on this same day, Saturday, Aug.
1, Russia assured England that she would
on no account commence hostilities if
the German army did not cross the fron-
tier, and France also declared that her
army should be kept six miles from her
frontier so as to prevent collision. This
was the situation de facto when very
early on Sunday morning, Aug. 2, 1914,
the German troops invaded Luxemburg,
a small independent State, which had
been guaranteed by all the powers the
same neutrality as Belgium. The die was
cast and the great war begun.

Intercourse between Germany and
Great Britain continued for two days, but
the crisis was reached in a heated in-
terview between the German Chancellor
with Sir Edward Goschen, the British
Ambassador at Berlin, over the word
" neutrality," and "the phrase " scrap of
paper," which was followed by Germany's
refusal to withdraw her troops from Bel-
gium, by Belgium's appeal to England
for aid under the treaty, and then by
the declaration of war between Germany
and Great Britain.

More Than 700 Graveyards in Galicia

Referring to the battlefields of Galicia and the efforts of the Austrian
Government to bring some sort of order into the conditions prevailing in military
burying grounds, the Berliner Vorwarts estimates that between the town of
Gorlice and the heights of Tarnoyo no fewer than 419 graveyards have been
cleared of their unsightly surroundings, and says that wherever possible natural
beauties in the landscap_e have been utilized to lend dignity to the enormous
cemeteries.

All along the Dunajec graveyards are thickly strewn over the entire coun-
tryside. Russians, Austrians, Germans, Hungarians to the number of 40,000
are buried in the cared-for graveyards, a number which does not include those
buried in masses in one grave. In West Galicia alone about 600 graveyards
exist, and in other parts more than 100. From the Dunajec eastward the
multitudinous graves of the Russians are seen stretching away into the eastern
plains, an awful record of the death grapple of last year.

Germany Long Planned the War

As Evidenced by an Official German Report Issued in

March, 1913

Written for CURRENT HISTORY

By William E. Church

Judge Church is an attorney and recognized publicist of influence. He entered the
Union Army in 1801, and was Adjutant General on the staff of General Sheridan. Later he
became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Dakota, and in 1890 moved to Chicago,
where he now resides.

IT has been announced that the Prus-
sian Government, with that char-
acteristic regard for efficiency
which not only overlooks no details
but anticipates their probable usefulness
well in advance of the event, has already
prepared for presentation to any council
or tribunal which may be formed at the
close of the present war to discuss terms
of settlement a compendium of official
documents designed to clear Germany
from responsibility for bringing on the
war, and even from the odium incurred
by violation of Belgium's neutrality.

It will perhaps contribute somewhat to
a better understanding of the merits of
Germany's pretensions on this subject to
call special attention to a remarkable
document which, although published in
connection with the French Yellow Book,
seems to have attracted little or no gen-
eral public notice.

On April 2, 1913, the French Minister
of War transmitted to the Minister of
Foreign Affairs a copy of a document
which he said he had just received from a
reliable source and which he designated
" An Official Secret Report Concerning
the Strengthening of the German Army,"
dated at Berlin, March 19, 1913.

The immediate occasion of this report
seems to have been the then recent en-
actment by the German Parliament of a
law increasing the German Army. The
document consists of several sections, of
which the first is entitled " General
Memorandum on the New Military
Laws." The second, from which the fol-
lowing extracts are taken, is entitled
" Aim and Obligation of Our National

Policy, of Our Army, and of the Special
Organization for Army Purposes ":

Our new army law is only an extension of
the military education of the German Na-
tion. * * * We must allow the idea to sink
into 'the minds of our people that our arma-
ments are an answer to the armaments and
policy of the French. We must accustom them
to think that an offensive war on our part is
a necessity, in order to combat the provoca-
tions of our adversaries. * * * We must so
manage matters that under the heavy weight
of powerful armaments, considerable sacri-
fices, and strained political relations, an out-
break should be considered as a relief, be-
cause after it would come decades of peace
and prosperity, as after 1870. * * * We
must not arouse the distrust of our financiers,
but there are many things which cannot be
concealed.

We must not be anxious about the fate of
our colonies. * * * On the other hand, we
must stir up trouble in the north of Africa
and in Russia. It is a means of keeping
the forces of the enemy engaged. It is, there-
fore, absolutely necessary that we should
open up relations, by means of well-chosen
agents, with influential people in Egypt,
Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco, in order to pre-
pare the measures which would be necessary
in the case of a European war.

Risings provoked in time of war by political
agents need to be carefully prepared and by
material means. They must break,out simul-
taneously with the destruction of the means
of communication. * * * The Egyptian
school is particularly suited to this pur-
pose. * * *

However this may be, we must be strong
in order to annihilate at one powerful swoop
our enemies in the east and west. But in the
next European war it will also be necessary
that the small States should be forced to
follow us or be subdued. In certain condi-
tions their armies and their fortified places
can be rapidly conquered or neutralized ;
this would probably be the case with Belgium
and Holland, so as to prevent our enemy in
the west from gaining territory which they
could use as a base of operations against

GERMANY LONG PLANNED THE WAR

869

our flank. In the north we have nothing to
fear from Denmark or Scandinavia, especially
as in any event we shall provide for the con-
centration of a strong northern army, capable
of replying to any menace from this direc-
tion. In the most unfavorable case, Denmark
might be forced by Great Britain to abandon
her neutrality ; but by this time the decision
would have already been reached both on
land and on sea. Our northern army, the
strength of which could be largely increased
by Dutch formations, would oppose a very
active defense to any offensive measures
from this quarter.

In the south, Switzerland forms an ex-
tremely solid bulwark, and we can rely on
her energetically defending her neutrality
against France, and thus protecting our
flank.

As was stated above, the situation with
regard to the small States and our north-
western frontier * * * will be a vital ques-
tion for us, and our aim must be to
take the offensive with a large superiority
from the first days. For this purpose it will
be necessary to concentrate a large army,
followed by strong Landwehr formations,
which- will induce the small States to follow
us or at least to remain inactive in the
theatre of operations, and which would crush
them in the event of armed resistance. If
we could induce these States to organize their
system of fortifications in such a manner as
to constitute an effective protection for our
flank we could abandon the proposed in-
vasion. But for this, army reorganization,
particularly in Belgium, would be necessary
in order that it might really guarantee an
effective resistance. If, on the contrary,
their defensive organization was established
against us, thus giving definite advantages
to our adversary in the west, we could in no
circumstances offer Belgium a guarantee for
the security of her neutrality. * * *

The arrangements made icitTi this end in
view allow -us to hope that it will be possible
to take the offensive immediately after the
complete concentration of the army .of the
Lower Rhine. An ultimatum with a short
time limit, to be followed immediately by
invasion, would allow a sufficient justifica-
tion for our action in international law.*

The attentive reader of these para-
graphs will perhaps find occasion in them
to doubt the entire ingenuousness of the
German Chancellor's so-called " confes-
sion " made to the Reichstag of the
wrong done by Germany in violating
Belgium's neutrality and to conclude that
perhaps he was merely following the
familiar dictum that " the use of lan-
guage is to conceal thought." To my

"The italics are not in the original docu-
ment.

mind they disclose these very significant
particulars:

1. That war against the Triple Entente
was definitely determined upon a year
and a half before it was actually begun.

2. The recognition by the German Gov-
ernment of the necessity for persuading
its people that, while apparently offens-
ive, the war would really be one of de-
fense.

3. That the idea of "an ultimatum
with a short time limit" subsequently
applied in the correspondence with Ser-
bia, with Belgium, and with Russia,
immediately preceding the outbreak of
hostilities, seems to have been deliber-
ately adopted as a part of the plan of
campaign, and, since no particular ulti-
matum to anybody on the subject was
just then contemplated, it would seem
fairly obvious that the questions as to
the subject of the proposed ultimatum
and the country to which it should be
addressed were left open for future con-
sideration and determination, as the
occasion might require.

4. That it was originally intended to
embroil Holland as well as Belgium in
the general melee, doubtless with a view
to acquiring complete control of the
Scheldt and the protection of Essen.
Why this part of the scheme was aban-
doned is not yet perhaps entirely clear.

5. That the real purpose of the pro-
posed invasion of these neutral States
was not to gain a short cut to France at
its most vulnerable point, but to compel
them to join Germany in an offensive
and defensive campaign against France
which would assure protection to the
German flank. This view is emphasized
by the proviso that if Germany could
induce these States to organize their
defenses in such a manner as to consti-
tute an effective protection to the German
flank the proposed invasion could be
abandoned.

For a clearer understanding of an
incident to which I propose now to
advert I here reproduce the famous
" Confession " in full :

Gentlemen : We are now in a state of
necessity, and necessity knows no law. Our
troops have occupied Luxemburg and per-
haps have already entered Belgian territory.
Gentlemen, that is a breach of international

870 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

law. It is true that the French Government
declared at Brussels that France ivould re-
spect Belgian neutrality as long as her ad-
versary respected it. We know, moreover,
that France stood ready for an invasion. [A
statement which, so far as the present writer
is informed, is unsupported by any proof, and
has been authoritatively denied.]

France could wait; we could not. A French
attack on our flank on the Lower Rhine
might have been disastrous. Thus w"e were
forced to ignore the rightful protests of the
Governments of Luxemburg and Belgium.
The wrong — I speak openly — the wrong we
thereby commit we will try to make good
as soon as our military aims have been at-
tained. He who is menaced as we are and
is fighting for his highest possession can only
consider how he is to hack his way through.

It has remained for an American
editor to evolve the startling proposi-
tion that, after all, Germany did not vio-
late Belgium's neutrality, but that her
action was strictly in accordance with
the accepted principles of modern civil-
ized warfare.

Briefly stated, the contention is that
Germany cannot justly be charged with
violating neutral territory by her in-
vasion of Belgium contrary to the pro-
visions of The Hague Convention of 1907,
because, prior to such invasion, she had
declared war against Belgium by the de-
livery to it of an ultimatum which, in
effect, demanded of Belgium its permis-
sion for free and unobstructed transit
of Germany's armies, with all their mu-
nitions and equipment, en route to
France, under penalty of being regarded
and treated as an enemy in case of re-
fusal, and that upon Belgium's rejection
of this demand a state of war immediate-
ly existed, which ipso facto destroyed
Belgium's character as a neutral and
transformed her into a belligerent.

The argument certainly has the merit
of novelty. It does not even seem to
have occurred to the German Chancellor
when he made the memorable address
above quoted, although he himself was
the author of the rejected ultimatum.

To fully understand the situation it
is necessary to recall that by the pro-
visions of The Hague Convention defin-
ing the rights and obligations of neu-
trals in case of war on land (Convention
V.) not only were belligerents forbidden
to move troops or convoys of either
munitions of war or supplies across the

territory of a neutral power, but neutral
powers were expressly forbidden to allow
any of the prohibited acts to occur on
their territory.

Now, it is of the utmost importance to
observe that in its " ultimatum " to Bel-
gium Germany not only announced its in-
tention of deliberately violating this sol-
emn convention, to which both, in com-
mon with some forty or more other pow-
ers, were parties, for the purpose of en-
abling it more surely to reach the throat
of its adversary, France, also a party,
and with whom Belgium was at peace,
but also demanded that Belgium should
itself violate that convention and become
a co-conspirator with Germany and facili-
tate its attack on France by doing one
of the very things which Germany, as a
signatory to the convention, had express-
ly forbidden it to do.

Thus Germany's own gross wrong is
sought to be made the basis for an argu-
ment in justification of all the enormi-
ties since committed by it on the ground
that a state of war existed, the character
of which is quite similar to that which
occurs when a householder is trying to
eject a burglar.

Conceding that one nation may have
the abstract right to declare war against
another for any, or even for no, assigned
cause, yet, in the forum of the civilized
world's conscience, there should be at
least some plausible excuse, and that, in
the present instance, is wholly lacking.
The argument relies upon Belgium's an-
swer to Germany's ultimatum as a tech-
nically sufficient casus belli, and this, it
will be noted, according to the plan of
campaign above set forth, is just what
Germany was looking for. The German
Chancellor, however, characterizes it as
Belgium's "rightful protest." Doubt-
less it served his then present purpose
to appease the natural scruples of some
of his worthy fellow-citizens not yet edu-
cated up to a just appreciation of the
Prussian war doctrines.

The proposition amounts to this: That
Belgium could preserve her neutral char-
acter only by consenting to and partici-
pating in the violation of her neutrality,
and could continue to be entitled to the
protection of The Hague Convention only

GERMANY LONG PLANNED THE WAR 871

by conspiring with one of the signatory many, was itself a gross violation of her

parties to violate it, to the prejudice of neutrality, involving an utter disregard

another signatory! of the express provisions of a convention

The solution of the problem is that in which every signatory nation had a

Germany's demand upon Belgium, (re- vital interest.

minding one forcibly of that made by NOTE.-" The Secret Report" referred to

the wolf upon the lamb he intended to in this communication, portions of which are

devour, " How dare you muddle the water therein quoted, will be found on Pages 130-133

I am drinking! ») made with the obvious °f a volume entitled •' Collected Diplomatic

_ * , ,, . , . , . Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the

purpose Of either bullying her into a VlO- European War," published in London in 1915,

lation of her treaty obligations or put- and characterized on the second page of its

ting her in a position of hostility to Ger- preface as "A Government Publication."

Two Irish Mothers

By MARY FLOYD 'McMULLEN

" Mother, I hear the bugle's voice,
The roar of throbbing drums —

And I hear a struggling Country call
To all her fighting sons."

" By the blood of an ancient race
And the pride of an ancient name,

I would not have thee bide at home
Though my heart should break in
twain."

That night I heard the banshee wail —
The night he marched away —

My eldest son, my gallant lad,

Through lanes all sweet with May!

They have brought a bright blade home!

O Mother Mary, ease my pain !
Far in an alien land he lies

Who ne'er will come again !
* * * * *

" Mother, I hear a mystic voice

Whispering imperiously:
'Arise and cast the Tyrant off —

Thus Erin shall be free!"

" My son, my son, my only son,
'Tis the voice of death and shame,

That strives to lure thee from the love
Of loyalty's fair name."

Again, again the banshee wails !

God, have pity! Pity and save
The soul of one who passed tonight —

Who fills a traitor's grave!

Magazinists of the World on the War

Condensed From Leading Reviews

In the excerpts printed in this department of CURRENT HISTORY will be found examples
of current thought in all the warring countries, as represented by their leading writers and
more influential periodicals.

The Working Classes in the War

By Dr. Lensch

Socialist Deputy in the Reichstag

Extracts from a noteworthy article in Professor Delbruck's monthly review, Prussische

Jahrbiicher.

IT is to be assumed without fear of
contradiction that the present world
war is in reality a duel between
Germany and England. Another fact,
which is none the less true, but which has
not been fully recognized, is that this
war is the first in history in which the
working classes represent a determining
political factor. To a very considerable
degree the outcome of the war depends
upon their attitude, and this is true above
all of the working classes in the two
principal hostile countries. For many dec-
ades past the English working classes
have been held up to their German con-
freres as a model. They have been ac-
claimed as sober, practical, non-revolu-
tionary, out and out patriots, and abso-
lutely non-international.

It is worth while in the light of the
latest experiences of this war to examine
whether this diagnosis of the British
workman is really true, and whether it is
desirable to hold up their attitude as an
example to German proletarians.

England's security has depended upon
the supremacy of the seas and made the
establishment of a strong standing army
superfluous. This meant that England
lost that organizing influence which a
conscript army exercises upon the entire
national organism. The defect produced
by the absence of universal service is one
of the essential causes why England to-
day represents the oldest social system
in the European States. Right down to
our day English individualism character-

izes the trade unionism of that country
and has robbed it of a great part of its
natural strength.

The absorption of the individual into a
great central organism such as dis-
tinguishes the German unions is an-
tagonistic to the English idea of freedom,
hence England's trade union movement
is split up into a large number of small
groups: In Germany 2,750,000 work-
men are organized in forty-eight so-
cieties, while in England 3,300,000 work-
men are " united " in 1,153 different
unions. The working classes in England
are the governed classes in the State, but
in a State which rules the world. This
remarkable position has created a curious
psychology in the English workman. That
he is able to lead a better mode of life in
comparison to the Continental workman
is merely a reflex action of England's
world position. The preservation of Eng-
lish world supremacy is the unconditional
assumption of all English workingmen
politics. That is to say, the English
working classes wish to shake off the
supremacy which the English classes ex-
ercise over them, but at the same time
they desire to see the supremacy which
their aristocracy exercises over the world
continued. It is obvious that such a re-
markable conflict of interests should
bring the English working classes into
antagonism with those of other countries.
It is hardly necessary to mention the
contempt which they feel for the workers
of other countries, and which they do not

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

873

take the trouble to conceal. The English
trade unionists have never shown any in-
terest in the workmen's battles of other
lands. When some years ago a general
strike was fought out in Sweden German
workmen contributed $430,000, but the
English only $17,000.

This double-sided, contradictory con-
stellation of interests has brought the
English working-classes into a state of
intellectual dependence upon the aristo-
cratic classes, and greatly deprived them
both of capacity and inclination to inde-
pendent policy. A drastic example of the
depressing helplessness with which they
meet the great decisive questions of to-
day is afforded by their attitude toward
the introduction of universal service.

What has been the attitude of the
Labor Party toward the introduction of
universal service? It is sufficient for
us to indicate that the working classes, in
a crisis which means a turning point in
world history for England, were without
ideas and just as helpless as children in
a dark room. Their helplessness can find
no more grotesque expression than the
catchword which leads them, and accord-
ing to which their army of hirelings is
the Palladium of English liberty; while,
on the other hand, universal service is a
monstrosity born of absolutism.

The English working classes have never
been obliged to wage class warfare with
the bitterness and energy such as, for
example, has been the fate of the German
workman. Nobody desires to depreciate
the severe struggles which English pro-
letarians have waged to obtain recog-
nition as the fundamental of their social
rise, but in comparison to the working
classes of other countries their lot has
been much easier, and it was in the very
nature of things that in Germany, which
as a competing State has had to work its
way upward under the greatest diffi-
culties against the overwhelming superi-
ority of the ancient Queen of the Seas,
the social antagonisms have taken a more
acute form. For the English aristocracy
this was a pleasant fact, just as it was
- unpleasant for the ruling classes in Ger-
many.

The absence of social strife in England
has led to that intellectual poverty which

has been revealed in glaring colors during
the war. National conceit, political help-
lessness, and a total absence of intel-
lectual interests, these are the conse-
quences of England's historical develop-
ment.

By the relative absence of a proper
class feeling and the discipline of class
strife, the laboring classes have missed a
great number of social elements which
make for their good. Class warfare is
by no means an invention and a catch-
word of the devil, but it means that social
democracy possesses a powerful na-
tionalizing force, and is aware of it.
By it the lower strata of society are
aroused to life and consciousness. In all
previous social communities they have
been nothing other than a dead, heavy
mass. They took no part in the life of
the nation; they were not really living
members of the nation; but only its rump,
on whose back the upper classes fought
out their struggles. In modern democ-
racy arose for the fdrst time a sub-
stratum, in which the call to class feeling
found an echo, and in that it criticised
the form of existing society, it learned
to feel itself a member of that society;
yet it has only been able to attain its
present position by a constant fight
against the ruling classes. The three
great democratic institutions of modern
society — compulsory school attendance,
universal service, and universal suffrage
— have contributed essentially to the or-
ganization of the class war and to the
building up of a national cultural com-
munity. That which the school begins
in the child is continued in the youth by
the service of arms, and the democracy
of public life completes it in the man.

The inestimable progressive influence
of class warfare in the cultural-national
sense has fallen in a far less degree to
the good of the English proletarian. It
is true that in one way he stood less in
need of it than the German. The insular
world-controlling position of the empire
has concerted exceedingly favorable con-
ditions for cultural and national exclu-
siveness, and yet the terrible intellectual
damage which England's working classes
have suffered through their favorable
social position is enormous. The absence

874

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

of intellectual interests is perfectly hor-
rifying, and, in fact, is characteristic of
all classes of English society. Roughly,
only half of the English workmen have
the right to vote. The Labor Congress in
1882 and 1883 voted with a great major-
ity against the introduction of universal
suffrage. The upper strata of skilled
workmen would not share a common vote
with the badly paid mass of workmen for
whom they had no interest. Hence this
great mass in England today is still in-
tellectually dead and without political in-
fluence. The real position of things will
only appear after the war. If England
does not succeed in preserving her world
rule undiminished, then the promise of a
labor policy has vanished. Even now it is
quite obvious to the Englishman that
after the war tremendous social struggles
will commence. The shaking of Eng-
land's world power means the undermin-
ing of the entire social organism, and the
consequences of this it is impossible to
foresee.

But with the downfall of England's
world supremacy an obsolete type of so-
ciety goes under. England has already
fought for her supremacy in the wars
against the French Republic and the
First Empire. France stood for the same

historical type as England. The socie-
ties of both empires were founded on in-
dividualism. England, who was at the
height of her development, was victori-
ous. Today England is fighting against
another enemy whom she has not been
able to defeat, an enemy which repre-
sents a more progressive historical social
principle — that of social organization.
What individualism has contributed to
the inward enrichment of humanity will
not be lost, but the wars of our time re-
quire forces which the nations cannot
mobilize on the basis of a society com-
posed of individuals. Only socialized
nations can do that, but out of it a new
principle arises which is directly opposed
to that prevailing in England. We are
approaching a turning point in the
world's history not less historically im-
portant than that on whose threshold
England stood 300 years ago. At that
time a new type of man of world-histori-
cal importance came into being in Eng-
land— the free individual; and now his-
tory is at work to evolve gradually a new
type — the social-communal organized
man. The creation of the necessary con-
ditions for this higher evolutionary type
is the historical work which Germany is
about to achieve.

Is the War Making Russia Poor or Rich?

By Z. Katzenelenbaum

Russian Financial "Writer
[Translated from Russkia Vetlomosti, Moscow, for CURRENT HISTORY]

A YEAR and a half ago it would
have seemed strange to ask whether
the war could bring any financial
benefits to Russia. At the end of 1914
it seemed clear that war carried with
it ruin and impoverishment for the bel-
ligerents. Economists and the general
public agreed in that view. There may
have been a difference of opinion on the
degree of the effect on each of the
warring countries, whether it would be
felt more sharply in Russia or in Ger-
many, for instance, and how long one or
the other would be able to stand it

economically; but the thought that a
country may prosper through war had
never been entertained then by any-
body.

The war dragged on, continuing much
longer than expected, demanding more
powerful exertions than anticipated. It
seemed that the ruin caused by the war
should have grown more extended every
day. But in actuality something very
different is taking place. The impover-
ishment of the belligerents has not only
not grown more and more marked with
every new day of the war, but, on the

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

875

contrary, there have arisen doubts in the
minds of the public as to the correctness
of the original prognosis regarding the
economic effects of war.

And the facts are indeed such as to
support grave doubts of the old-estab-
lished view, not only in the mind of the
general public, but even in the mind of
the financial expert. The war is now
costing Russia more than "30,000,000
rubles daily, and up to date it has eaten
up about 20,000,000,000, i. e., more than
the entire annual income of the whole
nation. These sums have been expended,
from the economic point of view, non-
productively. New material values have
not been created as a result of that ex-
penditure. The Government debt has
more than doubled, having increased by
13,000,000,000 to 14,000,000,000. Would
this not indicate the impoverishment of
the country?

But, on the other hand, a country can-
not be called impoverished if its in-
habitants are not. The growth of the
Government debt, if it is not followed
by a series of other phenomena, may
mean, in the worst case, only the dis-
organization of the Government finances,
the illness of the State Treasury. But
disorganized finances do not indicate the
impoverishment of a country. The two
things may often go together, but they
are by no means identical. One can
imagine economic prosperity under a
demoralized financial system, and such
instances in economic history are not un-
known. Only when the population of a
country is impoverished can one speak of
the ruin and impoverishment of the na-
tion.

But has the population of Russia
grown poor during the present war?
The commercial-industrial classes in all
countries, in belligerent as well as
neutral, are jubilant over the profits
caused by the war. After a momentary
confusion the world's industrial class
adapted itself very rapidly to the new
conditions. Forging the plows into
swords, they have become the suppliers
of swords to the fighting nations. Also
Russia's commercial-industrial class is
prospering, and one hears no complain-

ing from it. Russian industries, in
nearly all branches, are being run at
high profits. There are, of course, excep-
tions. The brewing industry has suf-
fered, but the sad voices of the brewers
are drowned in the chorus of the whole
class. As to the merchants, their profits
have risen with the steady rise in the
prices of all articles. A higher price is
of advantage to big, middle, and petty
business alike.

Have Russia's land owners suffered
through the war? There have seemed
to exist certain circumstances justifying
such an assumption. The scarcity of
labor for agricultural purposes, the rise
in wages, could result only in a decrease
of the arable land area. The land leased
from owners by peasants has grown
much smaller in area, as the rural pop-
ulation had its hands full with its own
land. Then the manufacture of alcohol,
a considerable source of income for the
land proprietors, has stopped. Neverthe-
less, one hears no complaints from that
quarter. The agrarian banks report that
the payments are coming in very regular-
ly this year, which proves the sound
condition of the land-owning class. It
would appear that the very profitable
realization of the crops has covered the
deficit due to the decrease in the amount
of arable land.

Let us turn to the main part of our
population — the peasantry. Has the vil-
lage become impoverished through the
war? Quite the opposite view has come
to be generally held. Not only persons
who come in accidental contact with our
village report prosperity, but the country
press is reporting the same. The village
drinks no more, it is receiving pensions,
it sells profitably its bread, cattle, and
dairy products. The signs of its pros-
perity are the increase in the deposits
in our savings banks and the frequently
noticed reluctance of our rural popu-
lation to dispose of its accumulated
products.

As to the labor class, matters are not
so brilliant. Some canvasses show that
labor conditions have grown worse during
the war. But Russia's labor class is
indeed not very large, and a rise in
wages has come through the war in

876 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

every branch of labor. Some of the
more qualified lines of labor receive
wages higher than ever before.

There remains the suffering middleman
of the town, where the high cost of living
is so keenly felt. But this group is
largely distributed among the classes just

and some groups of officials; but, being
in such a minority, how could these affect
the general picture of the economic con-
dition of the country? With the indus-
trial, commercial, land-proprietary, peas-
ant, and even labor classes prospering, it
is evident that the general condition of

named. Then there are the intelligentsia the country is prosperous.

German Scholars Explain Their Manifesto

By Dr. Max Planck

Professor in the University of Berlin

Speaking for the ninety-three German scholars and artists who signed the famous appeal
to the " World of Culture " at the beginning of the war, Professor Planck addressed this
letter to Professor H. A. Lorentz of the tJniversity of Leyden, who in turn forwarded it to
Sir Oliver Lodge :

Berlin, March, 1916.

HONORED COLLEAGUE : The well-
known appeal to the " World of
Culture," which was signed by
ninety-three German scholars and artists
and published in August, 1914, has, ow-
ing to the terms in which it was drawn
up, led to mistaken conceptions as to the
attitude of the signatories, as I have re-
peatedly discovered to my regret. Ac-
cording to my personal view, which, as I
know, is in all essentials shared by many
of my colleagues, (for example, by
Adolf von Harnack, Walter Nernst, Wil-
helm Waldeyer, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-
Mollendorff,) that appeal, which reflects
in its composition the patriotic excite-
ment of the first weeks of war, was in-
tended to signify and could signify noth-
ing but an act of defense — above all of
protection of the German Army against
the bitter accusations brought against it,
and an explicit declaration that the
scholars and artists of Germany refuse
to separate their cause from the cause of
the German Army. For the German
Army is nothing but the German people
in arms, and the scholars and artists are,
like all other classes, inseparably bound
up with it.

That we cannot, of course, be respon-
sible for every single action of every

German, whether in war or in peace, I
am glad to assert again with emphasis^
although I regard this as no less obvious
than that we are not as yet in a position
to pass a final judgment in any scientific
sense of the term on the great questions
of the history of the present day. Only
a subsequent, many-sided, and objective
examination can decide in which quarters
will be finally fixed the primary respon-
sibility for the failure of the efforts for
peace and for all the human suffering
which has been caused — an examination
whose results we await with a quiet con-
science.

For the moment we Germans have only
one task, so long as the war la§ts— to
serve our country with all our powers.
But what I specially desire to insist on to
you in particular is the firm conviction,
which even the occurrences of the pres-
ent war can never shake, that there are
regions of the intellectual and moral
world which lie outside the struggles of
nations, and that an honorable co-opera-
tion in the maintenance of these interna-
tional cultural values, and also no less a
personal respect for members of an
enemy State, are not inconsistent with
glowing love and energetic work for one's
own country. Your always devoted,

Dr. MAX PLANCK.

Germans in the United States

By A. Schalck de la Faverie

Principal Librarian of the National Library of France
[Translated from La Revue, Paris, for CURRENT HISTORY]

N efficient and enduring Germanic
regime in the United States would
be absolutely opposed to the very
principle which serves as a basis of the
Constitution. It would falsify all the
movements of interior policy and the
Federal Administration. It would bring
out at every instant the incompatibility
which separates the two countries. * * *
To try to reconcile tendencies so contra-
dictory would lead to a rupture; either
the German-Americans would proclaim
themselves straightout Germans and
would seek to cut a breach in the State,
or the Americans, denying the funda-
mental principles which presided over
their establishment in the New World,
would find that they had risen in vain
against the tyranny of George III., only
to end by bowing before the colossal
fantasies of Wilhelm II.

Everything proves that the campaign
set in motion by the Germans of Ger-
many with a view to drawing into their
orbit the Germans of the United States
will bear no savory fruit. It can create
troubles, as it has already done, setting
in motion a movement more or less
fraught with the menace of war, bring-
ing into play the largest financial and
economic interests; but it will not be
able to inflict a vital injury on a young
nation whose ideals are absolutely
opposed to those of Germany.

In the United States, in spite of pres-
ent appearances, in spite of the data of
statistics, Germany's hour is past.

While Spain, France, and England
were striving and struggling together,
paying with their blood for the organi-
zation of a new continent, what was
Germany doing? Through innumerable
trials, beneath the blows of internal and
external attacks, she was tearing herself
to pieces during a century, and during

the next century seeking to find herself.
Her poverty-stricken children went to beg
for shelter and bread from America.

While ancient France sought to found
on the shores of the St. Lawrence and the
Mississippi a new France, while the
Anglo-Saxon Puritans, long our rivals,
then our allies, to fix their establishment
and proclaim their independence have by
turns struggled against and beside us,
the Germans brought to America nothing
but the small change of their thwarted
wishes and of their complaisant aptitude
for small jobs. They worked on a margin
for the common good. The concession of
their devotion was always exercised with
the private thought of working for their
own interest. They never felt the spirit
of solidarity which, from the least to the
greatest, animates all the workers in the
same patriotic task. So that in the
United States they have received more
than they have given, and, having had
no share in the first battles fought to
establish a new nation, the German-
Americans have had the dangerous idea
of playing a subversive role which has
all the appearances of treason.

It is hardly probable that such methods
of action will lead to an immediate war,
but they are preparing war for the
future. The menace of German mili-
tarism imposes the necessity of American
militarism.

Such will be the most important conse-
quence of the present crisis in the United
States: The Germans, in return for the
hospitality which they have received, will
have taught the citizens of the United
States the urgent need of creating, with
little delay, a standing army, of conse-
crating immense sums to perfected arma-
ments, of applying, in a word, the best
of their activity to the madness of
military exigencies.

And when the laborious and peaceful

878 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

hive which is - the United States shall
have changed itself into a vast munition
factory, turning out rifles, cannon, shells,
a new era will open for the New World
which will astonish the half-ruined Old
World.

It will be the triumph of the doctrine

to which Monroe attached his name.
After Pan Germanism and Pan Slavism
we shall see Pan Americanism obliged to
pass from the defensive to the offensive,
from business to conquest, under the
urging of an irresistible militarism
inspired by Prussian militarism.

Germany's Shortage of Daily Bread

By Dr. Paul Michaelis

This study of the food situation in Germany was written for the Berliner Tageblatt
by Dr. Michaelis shortly after the organization of the War Food Bureau, with Adolf von
Batocki at its head, and is speically translated for CURRENT HISTORY.

E new President of the War Food
Bureau has surrounded himself with
a board of extremely expert persons,
who may be expected, in theory, to be in
a position to make a survey of the vast
food question. But one could wish that
he had also assured himself of the advice
of an intelligent housewife, who perhaps
could best tell him where the shoe pinches
the consumer. For people have gradually
become somewhat doubtful of all the
fine measures adopted by the governing
classes, who stick our economic life into
the stocks without, despite the enormous
display of ingenuity and labor, accom-
plishing that which in normal times is
taken as a natural presumption, namely,
that the individual housewife receives at
the right moment and without loss of
time what is necessary to enable her to
satisfy the needs of her family.

Of course it must be admitted that in
the present circumstances the individual
must retrench. We cannot increase our
very scanty supplies at our pleasure, and
therefore we must cut our coat to suit
our cloth. This is gradually becoming
apparent to everybody, and there surely
is no lack anywhere of a hearty desire
to adapt one's self to conditions. The
only thing that arouses resentment is the
fact that even the minimum allowance
of what could be supplied often is not
available, and that, furthermore, even
the work of distributing the quantities
of foodstuffs on hand is accompanied by
endless circumlocutions and wasteful
losses of time.

To date there have been things in the
official regulation of the market for
foodstuffs that have not functioned well.
Not only has the mass of the people
been aware of this for some time, but
also in the governing circles this faulty
distribution has been recognized. If this
were not the case there would be no
sense now in creating the War Food
Bureau in addition to all the existing war
organizations. The question is merely:
Is there really nothing there, for even
the Kaiser can't get blood out of a stone ?
If, however, this decisive question can
be answered in the negative on good
grounds, then it is to be hoped that Herr
von Batocki will do better than his pre-
decessors.

Bad as last year's harvest was, it
would have been sufficient to supply the
entire German people with bread and
potatoes in quite a different manner
from that used in the harvest year of
1915-16. We can talk this over quite
openly, now that the final figures on
the results of last year's harvest have
been made public. It is true that we
had a bad harvest last year in the case
of the most important kinds of grain.
Nevertheless, something more than thir-
teen million tons were harvested of the
principal grains, rye and wheat. If, im-
mediately following last year's harvest,
the entire crop of grain had been made
available for the maintenance of the
people, a much higher bread ration could
have been given to the individual in-
habitant than in reality was granted.

Women in Trousers Are Doing Men's Work All Over England

Women Malsters at Burton-on-Trent Market Gardeners Loading Tomatoes
(Photo from Underwood & Underwood) (Photo © Topical Press Agency)

Girl Millers in Nottingham

*^t^ ^..,,. r vrlrnrnnrf t(- J~ nrtrr irnn

\ Girl Who Cleans A«hes From

Furnace*
i ;»»,ofo front 1 ~*fl> • »».-oo/f rf r?n«ff**«roo«f)

How War Has Transformed the Dress of English Women Workers

Women Shipwrights Working for the Girls Doing the Work of RailroadMen

Lady Workers" On the Land at

Evesham

Women Doing Heavy Work As
Carters

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

Thirteen million tons equal 260,000,000
'• zentner " [a " zentner " is 110 pounds]
of grain fit for bread. If we subtract
from this some 50,000,000 " zentner " for
seed and similar losses, there still re-
mains 210,000,000 " zentner " of grain
available for human consumption. Prop-
erly ground a pound of grain will turn
out a pound of bread. So, if we take
the high estimate of 70,000,000 souls as
the population of Germany, every in-
dividual could have received a yearly al-
lowance of three " zentner " of bread,
which figures out about six pounds a
week, without, be it well noted, there
having been any necessity for " stretch-
ing" the flour with an addition of po-
tatoes, and without any of the bran hav-
ing been baked up in the bread.

And the fact has not been included in
this estimate that we also imported a not
unimportant quantity of grain from
Rumania, a quantity that at first was
something less than 100,000 tons a month,
but that rose to more than 200,000 tons a
month by April. As the military au-
thorities need more than the average
amount of grain for the maintenance of
the troops in the field, we may allow
them all the imports from Rumania. It
may also be admitted that it was not
possible or necessary to divide the en-
tire crop of grain among individuals.
But all this does not explain why, during
the last year, there were only about 200
grams [about 7 ounces] of flour avail-
able per capita per day. The bread ra-
tion, even without the admixture of
potatoes and despite the poor harvest,
could have been materially larger than
it really was.

The anomalous relation of the grain
harvest to the bread ration has also been
verified in the Budget Committee. Dr.
Wendorff, a Deputy who is exceptionally
well posted on this subject, has esti-
mated that 2,200,000 tons of grain have
simply disappeared. That means 44,000,-
000 " zentner." It is true that this cal-
culation has been disputed on the part
of the Government, but it doesn't im-
press us that the objections raised on
that side have sufficiently explained the
deficit that has actually been found. It
is very likely that Dr, Wendorff was

right when he said that the millions of
tons that were missing had been thrown
into the feed troughs. It must also be
admitted that the individual cattle raiser
is sorely tempted to feed up grain thkt
is fit for bread when his stock is hungry
and other fodder is scarce and dear. In
such cases it doesn't do much good for
the newspapers constantly to repeat:
"The man who uses grain fit for bread
as fodder sins against the Fatherland."

It is not necessary to throw stones
at any individual or any class, but
especial stress must be laid upon the
fact that so long as it is indispensable
for the nourishment of the people any-
thing like the using of grain for fodder
dare not be repeated under any circum-
stances. It was the business of the
authorities to prevent this misuse of a
supply of food that could not be replaced.
They have not understood how to set
aside the entire harvest of grain at the
proper time for the nourishment of the
people. It is possible that this was due
to their lack of jurisdiction. In this mat-
ter, too, it is not our desire to make
additional reproaches. The one thing
that we must demand in the present cir-
cumstances is that it must be done better
this time.

Fortunately the harvest outlook is ma-
terially better this time than it was a
year ago. It is to be hoped that we
shall harvest a much larger crop of grain
than we did during last year's poor har-
vest. But nothing could be more serious
than, in the confidence of a larger crop,
to slacken the reins and again to fail
to understand how to prevent great
quantities of grain from disappearing
without leaving a trace. The President
of the War Food Bureau, with his ex-
tremely broad powers, is in a position
to make sure of the grain supply. We
may expect that he will avail himself
of this liberty of action in such a way
as finally to relieve us from the necessity
of eating potato bread and to provide
every individual member of the empire
with a sufficient amount of bread.

In the case of other articles of food
last year conditions were almost worse
than in the matter of the bread supply.
It will always remain incomprehensible

880 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

how, with a record crop of potatoes that
was far above 50,000,000 tons, we were
finally compelled to cut down the con-
sumption of potatoes to an insufficient
ration. It is just as incomprehensible
how sugar, something that the German
Empire has in superabundance, could
suddenly become scarce. We shall finally
be obliged to state that the supply of
milk, butter, and meat has been far below
the quantity available according to statis-
tical calculations. Of course, drastic
action will have to be taken at last in

this sphere, too. But bread still remains
the most important and most necessary
article of food. It must be supplied to
the people in sufficient quantity and in
a more efficient manner than formerly
after the coming harvest. That even
with the poor harvest of last year it
would have been possible to increase the
bread ration materially is indubitably
shown by statistics. That in the future
the nation shall again be assured of its
daily bread is the greatest task involved
in the feeding of the German people.

'If You Desire War, Embrace Pacifism"

Under the signature of " Grosclaude,"
a French publicist utters this ivarning In
Le Figaro of Paris:

OUR country has been invaded for
twenty months, hundreds of thou-
sands of our brothers and sons are
dead or mutilated, ruins have accumu-
lated, sacrileges been endured. It is
the expiation for the negligence of loyal
and trusting people who refused to see
Germany in arms planting her heavy
guns on our frontier and silently push-
ing to the very bases of our fortresses
the formidable vanguard of her military
spies and commercial agents.

Two millions of barbarians in pointed
helmets have flung themselves upon our
land. If Paris was saved from their
profanation, it is because a Gallieni rose
before them, as a St. Genevieve had
risen in the past. If they are breaking
themselves upon our lines of defense it
is because, under the direction of the
Joffres, Castelnaus, Fochs, Petains,
Gourauds, Mangins, Marchands, and other
war leaders, our whole nation is enrich-
ing with its blood the furrow of victory
which, tomorrow, will be dug onward to
the Rhine. Nobody doubts this any
longer in France, and beyond the border
they are becoming resigned to it.

The sublime serenity of martyrdom
for the faith of right and fatherland
adorns the faces of our heroes in their
sufferings, and this darkness of a dving
world is illumined by the most radiant

hope. We do not wish to be pitied, and
we feel ourselves loved. Permit our
solicitude, in return, to voice its alarm
if you do not perceive close to you the
peril beneath which we have almost suc-
cumbed.

Two million helmeted Germans are
less to be feared on our soil — you will
realize it soon — than fifteen million
masked Germans on your own. You
are only in the " before the war " stage.
We went through that stage — without
recognizing it. Be less blind than we;
defend yourselves before it is too late.
If you let your German millions sub-
merge your commerce, strangle your in-
dustries, manipulate your politics, and
dominate the choice of your public of-
ficials; if they succeed, in short — a
thing that would be more frightful than
all else — in beclouding your conscience,
hitherto so free and forthright, then,
woe to you, noble America, lost through
the most fallacious illusion!

A few years ago — on the eve of the
Agadir incident — a little book, admirably
fashioned to penetrate into all minds and
hearts, was published simultaneously in
France, England, America, Denmark,
Norway, Spain, Finland, Holland, Italy,
Japan, Sweden — and even in Germany.
It was Norman Angell's " The Great Il-
lusion." What Mr. Angell designated by
this title was the fear felt by all na-
tions, including ours, of seeing the peace
of the world disturbed to the detriment

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

881

of quite nations by their bellicose neigh-
bors. That book did its work — its poison
achieved its evil mission. The most
frightful of wars has been let loose upon
nations enervated by the mental opiates
of that false prophet. Is it necessary to
write a volume crammed with arguments
and figures, and to put it on sale on
the same day in all countries still belong-
ing to the civilized world, to show how
fatal to us has been that " great illu-
sion " which veiled the dark design of
the ravening colossus bent upon en-
slaving and debasing the world; an ob-
ject which it has not yet despaired of
attaining by ways the most abominable:
— by Zeppelins that bombard the civil
population, by submarines that sink
steamers laden with women and children,
by suffocating gases, by floods of burn-
ing benzine hurled against loyal defend-
ers, by the blowing up of factories in
neutral countries, by diplomatic treach-
ery, and, in addition, by intruding in

the domestic politics of nations for which
if professes friendship?

Brother Americans, you whose sense
of " struggle " has taught you the ad-
vantage of marching straight at a peril
without turning away your face, look at
us, meditate on our lot, and consider
what that execrable, stupefying drug,
pacifism, has made of our Europe.

The wisdom of the ages has declared,
" Si vis pacem." (" If you desire peace,
prepare for war.") Our wisdom of to-
day tells you with the same certitude,
" If you desire war, embrace pacifism."
I offer that motto to your illustrious
Roosevelt. It is with emotion that we
see him urging upon you an active
prudence. We are counting upon him to
put before your eyes the lesson of our
dreadful example. And, fallen into the
ambuscade whither we were traitorously
attracted, we raise out of the night the
saving cry of the chevalier: " On guard,
America! The enemy is upon you! "

The Heart Cry of England's Women

By Flora Annie Steel

Author of " On the Face of the Waters " and other novels

WHAT can we do for thee? Eng-
land! Our England! Through
the hearts of how many British
women have not those words echoed
during the last nineteen months of war!
In that first rush of almost overwhelm-
ing desire to be at work for her, some-
where, somehow, to take our part with
the men who were flocking to the colors,
they beat in on our brains with almost
maddening force; for we could do next
to nothing. We were told, in so many
words, to sit at home and spin or knit!
So we sat and we knitted; aye! even
those of us who felt that we could do
seme things better than they were being
done by men.

Then, more than a year ago, came an
appeal for workers from the Board of
Trade. Those of us who think, those of
us who are keen, cabled " victory " to
each other. But a year has passed, and
victory has not come. Application after

application for definite information has
been met by evasion, by statements that
the time was not yet ripe, that trade
unions stood in the way, that the age
limit must be enforced. That sort of
thing takes the heart out of humanity.
I know thousands of women into whose
souls the iron has entered. I am one of
them. Two years ago it hurt me to be
told I was too old to work. I was keen
as mustard; strong beyond compare.
Now I am growing blind, perhaps with
unshed tears; anyhow, I am past hard
manual labor.

And it is just because this is so, just
because I have missed my chance, that
at this present time I am appealing to
other women who are not quite so old
to forget everything save the fact that
they are British women.

Let the dead past bury its dead. For
of a surety if we women do not come
forward now in our thousands, nay! our

882 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

millions, our nation will as surely go
under, as a great nation, as the green
Spring leaves pass to their Autumn
grave. There is no question of this.

After months of procrastination,
months on months during which the
writing on the wall was visible day and
night, we are at last waking up to the
need for combined national action, we
are at last beginning to read our doom
if we do not act at once. In this great
crisis of our nation it must not be said
that the women hung back, that they
would not lend a hand.

Millions of men have gone to the
front; under 200,000 women are as yet
employed in making munitions. This
low figure is not the woman's fault;
the whole organization for tapping the
supply of female labor is beneath con-
tempt; on all sides rank prejudice and
crass selfishness -stand in her way. But
what of that?

She is British born. Say what men
will, the traditions of her country are
her traditions; its courage, its tenacity,
aye! everything it has is hers in that
they are mother-born.

It is not, my sisters, that we have not
been patriotic. We have been abundantly
so. But we have possessed our souls in

patience, we have taken the lowest place,
we have done as men have bidden us to
do — we have kept the home fires burn-
ing.

But now, when every available man
will be fighting, when there shall be no
fear, no favor in the citizen's first duty
of defense, we women have more to do
than boil the kettle against one man's
return. Yes, even if it comes to com-
munal fires, we must keep the credit of
our country fair and square. Her in-
dustries are being depleted of their men;
we must renew their vigor — nay, we
must increase it!

Why? Because we hold the future in
the hollow of our hands! Because the
unborn millions to come will be born of
us! Ours is the part to see to it that
the future generations shall live in lib-
erty; so ours is the duty to work our
hardest now for the freedom of the
world.

Not only because we are patriotic, not
only because these fair islands of ours
are heart-dear to us; but because deep
down in every woman's heart — aye, even,
in the girl child's — there lies the instinct
of the future, the vision of a Promised
Land, where there shall be no more strife,
but peace unutterable.

War, Peace, and the Future

By Ellen Key

The noted Swedish champion of woman's rights in a recent pamphlet discusses the European
situation and the outlook for the future.

HOW is mankind to prevent wars
from occurring? Is it at all pos-
sible to bring this about, and
what may be the means? My conviction
that war can be abolished is as firmly
rooted in my mind as is my belief that
it will also be possible some day to
humanize what we term humankind. But
we must first make some radical
changes in our ways of looking at this
matter. For instance, so long as the
pulpit and the leaders in the educational
world proclaim that it is entirely con-
sistent with the plans of Providence to
carry on war, and that Christianity can

go hand in hand with warfare, just so
long will it be useless to advocate peace
in home or school.

I am convinced that one of the instru-
ments for making war less of a possi-
bility in the future would be the na-
tionalizing of all those industries that
are essential to military and naval mobi-
lization. In this way there will be re-
moved certain temptations of individuals
to profit by the carrying on of war.

Any alliance between nations for the
purpose of making common cause in war
is bound to prove disastrous finally,
because almost always the independence

MAGAZINISTS OF THE WORLD ON THE WAR

883

of the smaller countries is at stake.
Peace treaties that tread on the sov-
ereignty of other nations invariably lead
to war at some future time.

The art of statecraft has deteriorated
in Europe since 1870. Militarism de-
presses the free will and the political and
economic development of the people. War
is only to be prevented where the higher
statesmanship is given unhampered op-
portunity, where an idea and an ideal
are afforded the chance to foster and
bind closer the interests of the masses.

The motive that should have obtained
in Europe and should have actuated the
political leaders is a kind of co-operation
for the purpose of erecting a barrier
against the barbarism of the East. In-
stead of this the lesser statesmanship
succeeded in sundering the real culture
bearers of western Europe. No other
remedy seems to be logical for future

peace than that the advanced European
nations bury their own differences and
stand like a wall against that barbarism
which fundamentally does not have its
home among them.

That many generations may yet have
to succeed each other before this light
can rise for the nations of western Eu-
rope there can be little doubt. I am far
from believing, as many do, that the
present war will increase the possibility
of peace in the future. It may be that
greater political activity on the part of
European women and the working classes
will influence the existing understanding
of what constitutes national power, honor,
and glory. But notwithstanding all this,
it may take hundreds of years before
the insanity of the world war will see
itself conquered by the common sense
policy of world organization through
reason.

German Defeat Through Exhaustion

By H. G. WELLS
[From his new book, " What Is Coming? "]

After a long war of general exhaustion Germany will be the first to realize
defeat. This does not mean that she will surrender unconditionally, but that
she will be reduced to bargaining to see how much she must surrender, and
what she may hold. It is my impression that she will be deserted by Bulgaria,
and that Turkey will be out of the fighting before the end. But these are chancy
matters. In the character of the settlement much will turn upon the relations
prevailing between Germany and her present rulers. All Europe outside Ger-
many now hates and dreads the Hohenzollerns, No treaty of peace can end
that hate, and so long as Germany sees fit to identify herself with Hohenzollern
dreams of empire and a warfare of massacre and assassination, there must be
war henceforth, open, or but thinly masked, against Germany. It will be but
the elementary common sense of the situation for all the Allies to plan tariffs,
exclusions, special laws against German shipping and shareholders and im-
migrants for so long a period as every German remains a potential servant of
that system.

Human Documents of the War Fronts

Behind the dry official reports of military events is a vast fund of emotional human
interest. It is the aim of this department of CURRENT HISTORY to give the best available
glimpses of that side of the war, as found in private letters, personal experiences, and thrilling
episodes of courage, humor, or pathos.

Killing the Slightly Wounded

By A. Pankratoff

[Translated from the Russian for CURRENT HISTORY]

fl^ HE other day, quite unexpectedly, I
ran into Lieutenant X., better known
as the Junior Subaltern.

This was the fourth time I had run
across him since the beginning of the
war — at Insterburg, where the Junior
Subaltern was leading his company to-
ward Konigsberg; then in the trenches
beyond Tarnovo; then in the vicinity of
Lublin, during the great retreat; and
now, the fourth time.

" I am stationed twelve versts from
Czernowitz," he went on to explain. The
Junior Subaltern is really so young that
you can't help envying him. His face
shines with health. His eyes are always
laughing. His speech is very simple, but
impressive; -but he does not like to talk;
he would rather listen, and laugh re-
sponsively with his eyes.

Fortune had brought us together; sev-
eral men sitting down to a common meal.
We talked freely about everything. The
conversation turned to the German habit
of finishing all the wounded enemies they
find after a successful battle. During
the forest fighting last August one of
us had come across sixty Cossacks who
had been but slightly wounded, and whom
the Germans had hanged on the trees.

" We avenged them, however; the Ger-
mans got something to remember! " said
the narrator.

Lieutenant X.'s eyes sparkled with
animation.

" Well," he said, " of course they de-
served it! Of course it is a crime to kill

the wounded. But, gentlemen, there are
cases when it is impossible not to kill
the wounded."

"What on earth do you mean?"

"Just what I said! There is such a
thing as rightful killing of the wounded!"

We insisted, and the Junior Subaltern
narrated a recent experience of his,
" somewhere in Bukowina." He had been
in command of a party of scouts. His
regiment had just arrived to take the
place af another infantry regiment. And
the first thing to do was to become ac-
quainted with the locality and to learn
the dispositions and intentions of the
enemy. The Junior Subaltern was sent
out with his company. At one place the
opposing armies were separated by a
ravine, which forked out toward our
trenches. Lieutenant X. knew that the
men of the regiment his was replacing
had become acquainted with the Aus-
trians, and that the enemies by day came
together at the bottom of the ravine by
night, entertained one another, and
gossiped.

" War is burdensome, gentlemen ! " ex-
plained the Junior Subaltern, " and we
all long for even the semblance of human
intercourse with the other chaps. * * *
And there happened to be a prolonged
and tiresome spell of calm between bat-
tles, and so the men of the regiment we
were replacing and the Austrians had
long smokes together, exchanging pipes.
But every one remembered — and nobody
l.cld j*-- ccalnct r.~7 cr.c — that the course

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

885

of cigarettes must be closely interwoven
with the course of bullets on the mor-
row. * * * Yet, yet — oh, if we were
only chivalrous knights, conducting a
picturesque tournament, instead of com-
mon Russian cannon fodder fighting
common Austrian cannon fodder. * * *"

Of course our young friend wanted to
do the magnanimous thing by the enemy,
sending round word to them, " Here we
come! Get ready! " But what he did do
was to take advantage of the quiet ex-
change of the two Russian regiments and
the total ignorance in which the Austrian
members of the nightly smoking club in
the ravine still remained, and to creep
noiselessly forward to the spot where the
friends of the night before were on guard.
The Austrian sentinels- — three of them —
dozed, wrapped in their blankets. The
Russians crept stealthily forward. * * *

"What else could we do?" asked the
Junior Subaltern. " Humanitarian ideas
are in blank contradiction to the present
war. Civilians at home may try to judge
everything in accordance with these
ideas. Well, we know they are mistaken.
Oh, they are simply ridiculous! " ended
the Junior Subaltern, his good-natured,
broad face blushing at making such a
bold statement in company.

" Such nonsense ! " he went on. " Of
course, at the back of our minds the
horror of it is always present. But what
else can you do? Standing in blood up
to your throat, and knowing that you
have to protect your men, to protect your-
self. * * * And what difference does
it make to them whether you shoot them
or throttle them? * * * About a
hundred paces from those three sentinels
there were at least a hundred others, and
two hundred yards off were the Austrian
trenches. The least noise, a groan, the
stifled cry of a wounded Austrian would
be the end of everything for my scouts;
and there were only thirty of us. That
was when I gave the order not to leave
any wounded alive. * * *"

It was an evident relief to him to be
interrupted.

" Oh, yes, I remember ! " said one of
us. " I was in camp when the Austrian
officer, routed out in his sleep, was

brought in on the run in his nightshirt.
The whole thing went rapidly and 'well,
and you took a machine gun from the
Austrians! "

Another of us said:

" I don't see what you are driving at!
There's no analogy at all ! What you did
was no hitting of those who were down
already. All sorts of conventions and
international law would justify you! "

"Well," answered the Junior Sub-
altern, " did I not say that there was
such a thing as justifiable killing of the
wounded, for us as for the Germans?
Besides, I got decorated for the job!
Ouch ! It is going to thaw ! I know, be-
cause my wounded leg aches ! "

His smile was so frank and his face so
full of the bloom of youth as he thus
changed the subject that it was quite
evident that he did not change it from
any false modesty, but simply because
the subject — including his own dis-
tinguished part in it — had no further
interest for him.

" You have been wounded? "

" Yes. Two bullets in my leg, one in
my arm, one in the abdomen."

" And you are still alive? "

" As you see ! It was that devilish
machine gun! The bullet that entered
my abdomen cut through the intestines,
touched my stomach, and came out by my
back. When I regained consciousness I
heard the doctor saying: 'Put this one
aside; he will die in a minute or two! '
And some of my men dug a nice grave
for me and wrote my name and the date
on a board, and sat down patiently to
wait for my funeral. But I didn't die.
So the surgeon had to send me to hos-
pital. But when the ambulance was
starting I heard him say: ' It's not a bit
of use ! He'll die on the way there ! ' But
I cheated the doctors. I'm quite a rare
specimen ! "

"You are indeed!" And we all
laughed, so contagious was Lieutenant
X.'s laughter.

" The Medical Council," he went on,
" explained it by the fact that, for two
whole days previously, I had had nothing
to eat * * * hadn't had time! It
was on the Stripa. The moment our regi-
ment arrived at we had to fight."

Heroism and Pathos of the Front

By Lauchlan MacLean Watt

This touching bit of genuine literature, penned by a poetic Scot " somewhere in France,"
deserves to rank as a classic among war letters.

OUT here in the land of war we
sometimes feel very far from
those we love; and then, as
though we had walked somehow right
through reality, our thoughts are lifted
oversea, and the mirage of home floats
like a dream before us. The magic stop
is touched in many ways. Little do the
brave lads speaking to us in camp or
hospital know how often they have
brought us underneath its spell.

Just a week ago, in a tent where the
wounded lay, I was beside the bed of a
fine young Scottish soldier, stricken
down in the prime of his manhood, yet
full of hope. The thought of the faces
far away was always with him uphold-
ingly. In fact, the whole tent seemed
vibrant with the expectation of the
journey across the narrow strip of blue
which sunders us from home. This
Scottish youth had been talking, and it
was all about what tomorrow held for
him. His mother, and the girl that was
to share life with him — these were fore-
most in his thought. His face shone as
he whispered, " I'm going home soon."
Everything would be all right then. What
a welcome would be his, what stories
would be told by the fireside in the Sum-
mer evenings! " But he made the greater
journey that very night. We buried him
two days later, where the crosses, with
precious names upon them, are growing
thick together. Surely that is a place
most holy. There will be a rare parade
there on Judgment Day of the finest
youth and truest chivalry of Britain and
of France. Soft be their sleep till that
reveille !

We got the Pipe Major of a famous
Highland regiment to come over; and
when the brave dust was lowered, while
a little group of bronzed and kilted men
stood around the grave, he played the
old wail of sorrow of our people, " Locha-
ber No More." I heard it last when I

stood in the rain beside my mother's
grave; and there can be nothing more
deeply moving for the Highland heart.
The sigh of the waves along Hebridean
shores called to me there, among the
graves in France.

The men who lie in this hospital are
those who could not be carried further
meanwhile, and they have been dropped
here, in passing, to hover between, life
and death until they make a move on
one side or other of the Great Divide.
So it is a place where uncertainty takes
her seat beside the bed of the sufferer,
watching with ever unshut eye the fluct-
uating levels of the tide of destiny. It
is a place where the meaning of war
gets branded deep upon you. The
merest glimpse solemnizes. Of course,
the young may forget. The scars of
youth heal easily. But the middle-aged
of our generation will certainly carry to
the grave the remembrance of this awful
passion of a world.

Here, of course, you meet all kinds of
men, from everywhere. They were not
forced to come, except by duty, in their
country's need. They were willing in
the day of sacrifice, and theirs is that
glory deathless.

One has been burned severely. How
he escaped at all is a miracle. But they
are all children of miracle. Death's pur-
suing hand seems just to have slipped off
some as he clutched at them. This man
looks through eye-holes in his bandages.
He is an Irishman, and the Irish do take
heavy hurts with a patient optimism
wonderful to see.

There is also a fine little Welshman,
quite a lad, who has lost his leg. He has
been suffering continually in the limb
that is not there. Today he was lying
out in the sun, and he looked up cheerily
at me. " Last night," he said, " for about
half an hour I had no pain. I tell you
I lay still and held my breath. It was so
good I scarcely could believe it. I thought

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

887

my heart would never beat again, at the
wonder of it."

The usual picture postcard of the
family is always close at hand. One
North of Ireland man, up out of bed for
the first time, was very full-hearted
about his " missis and the childer." Said
he with pride, " She's doin' extra well.
She's as brave as the best of them, and
good as the red gold — that's what she is."

Another poor fellow, in terrible pain,
asked me to search in a little cotton bag
which was beside him for the photograph
of his wife and himself and the little
baby. " It was took just when I joined,"
he whispered. " Baby's only two months
old there." •

One day those who were able were out-
side, and a gramophone was throatily
grinding the melody out of familiar
tunes, with a peculiarly mesmeric effect.
Suddenly the record was changed to
"Mary of Argyle." The Scotsman by
whose bed I was standing said:
" Wheesht! D'ye hear thon? Man, is it
no fine? " And the tears ran down his
cheeks as he listened. It was a poor
enough record. In ordinary times he
would have shouted his condemnation of
it. But he was now in a foreign land —
a stricken, suffering man. And it made
him think of some woman far away be-
side the Forth, where he came from. And
his heart asked no further question.

At the head of the bed of some of them
you will see a blue paper. " You're look-
ing grand today," said I to a young fel-
low. And he replied, " Is there anny
wonder, Sir, wid that scrap o' paper
there? " For it was the order for home
on the first available opportunity.
" Sure, won't the ould mother be glad
to see me ? " he continued. " The sun-
shine here is beautiful, but sunshine in
the ould country is worth the world."

"Good-bye, Sir!" they sometimes cry.
"I'll be away when you come round
again." But perhaps next time a sad
face looks up at you, for the day so
eagerly anticipated has been again post-
poned.

It is always home, and what the dear
ones there are like, and what they will be
thinking yonder, that fills up the quiet
hours toward restoration, as it strength-

ened the heart and arm of the brave in
the hour of terrible conflict.

The endurance, patience, and courage
of the men are beyond praise — as marvel-
ous as their sufferings. I can never
forget one who lay moaning a kind of
chant of pain — to prevent himself
screaming, as he said.

Last night we had a very beautiful ex-
perience. We were searching for a man
on most important business, but as the
wrong address had been given, that part
of it ended in a wild-goose chase. Never-
theless we were brought into contact
with a real bit of wonder. It was an ex-
quisite night. The moon, big, warm, and
round as a harvest moon at home, hung
low near the dreaming world. The trees
stood still and ghost-like, and the river
ran through a picture of breathless beau-
ty. We had got away beyond houses,
and were climbing up through a great
far-stretching glade. The road before
us was a trellis of shadow and moon-
light. Suddenly we had to stand and
listen. It was the nightingale. How in-
describably glorious! The note of in-
quiry, repeated and repeated, like a
searching sadness; and then the liquid
golden stream of other-world song. How
wonderfully peaceful the night lay all
around — the very moonlight seemed to
soften in the listening. And yet again
came the question with the sob in it; and
then the cry of the heart running over.

The valley lay lapped in luminous haze,
a lake somewhere shining. But there was
no other sound, no motion, no sign of life
anywhere — only ourselves standing in
that shadowy glade, and that song of the
beginnings of the world's sadness, yearn-
ing, and delight, somewhere in the thicket
near.

It was difficult to believe that we were
in a land of war; that not far from us
lay ruined towns of ancient story; that
the same moonlight, so flooded with de-
light for us, was falling on the unin-
terred, the suffering, and the dying, and
the graves where brave dust was buried.
It was all very beautiful. And yet, some-
how, it made me weary. For I could not
help thinking of the boy we had laid down
to rest, so far from home, and the piper
playing " Lochaber No More " over his

888 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

grave. And of the regiment we had seen
that very day, marching in full equip-
ment, with the pipers at the head of the
column, so soon to be separated from the
peat fires and the dear ones more widely

than by sundering seas. And we hated
war. God recompense the cruel ones who
loesened that bloody curse from among
the old-time sorrows which were sleep-
ing, to afflict again the world!

A Day in a German War Prison

By Wilhelm Hegeler

Popular German Novelist

The strange mixture of races on the western front is here depleted by a noted German
author in the form of a prison guard's narrative of his daily life.

fin HERE they lie in a gloomy room of

J_ the railroad station, the English

prisoners, together with their allies

from the Old and New Worlds. The

room used to be the waiting room for

non-smokers, and it is no darker or

uglier than any of the other rooms, only

it seems so because of its occupants.

" Service at the Zoo." Every one of
us knows what this means — duty with
the prisoners. Our soldiers have in-
vejited good-natured nicknames for the
Turcos, Indians, and Algerians that they
meet here: " The men from the monkey
theatre," " The Masqueraders," " The
Hagenbeck Troop." But they walk past
the Englishmen in silent hatred. A little
sympathy is needed, even for banter.

The prisoners' room is empty, except
for a few inmates who for various
reasons could not be sent away. I am on
duty here today. Crumpled forms squat
on mattresses along the wall like multi-
colored bundles of clothing. Not much
is to be seen of their faces. Only a
black arm, a lank yellow hand, a gaudy
blue sash, a pair of wide red trousers
stand out. There they crouch in the
same stoical calm as they did before
their houses in the distant Orient, with
the exception that they, with the instinct
of wounded animals, hide their faces.

An Englishman lies on a bed opposite
them. He looks at me expectantly as if
he wants to say something. But al-
though I am not forbidden to talk with
the prisoners, I feel no necessity for
doing so.

An hour goes by. From time to time
I give a drink to the Orientals who ask

me for it through gestures. At last the
Englishman can keep silent no longer
and asks :

" Will they treat us very severely? "

I shrug my shoulders. ""People feel
angry at the English. Our soldiers as-
sert that they waved white flags and then
threw hand grenades."

" I don't know anything about that.
That may have been the case earlier, but
I have been in the war only eight days.
A week ago I was in Newcastle with my
wife."

He takes a tin case from under his
shirt, opens it, and looks at it for a long
time. Then he shows me the case, which
contains the picture of a woman, his wife.
Then he takes a piece of paper from his
trousers pocket and shows me that, too.
A name and address are written on it.

" That is the man who bound up my
wound on the field of battle. He was very
good to me. After the war I shall write
to him."

After a long period of silence he begins
to talk again. But I do not think fur-
ther conversation timely. I only pay at-
tention once and that is when he explains
to me his grade in the service and his
rate of pay. He is something like a Ser-
geant and says, pointing to his insignia:
" A common soldier gets only so much ;
with this insignia he gets so much more,
and when he has both, as I have, he gets
so much." He names the munificent sum
with visible pride.

Then the door opens and my comrade
announces in a tone that implies some-
thing* unusual : " A Belgian in a German
uniform." I look at the man in astonish-

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

889

ment. Why is he allowed to run around
without any guard in particular? The
expression of his face is rather stupid.
He sits down near the stove and crosses
his legs comfortably. I ask him how he
got the uniform. He answers in Flemish.
Before an explanation is possible the
hospital corps men bring in six or seven
Englishmen on stretchers. Now quick
work is necessary. Mattresses must be
spread out on the floor and the people
changed from bed to bed. The room is
filled with inquisitive hospital corps men
and soldiers. I shove them all out. When
the door is finally closed again I count
my prisoners and find the Belgian is
missing. I rush outside to look around
the station platform. There stands my
Belgian on the doorstep. I seize his arm
in an almost friendly manner and invite
him to come inside again. At last he tells
me how he got the uniform. He insists
he got it in the hospital in the place of
his own tattered one. I shake my head
incredulously, but the chaffeur who
brought the prisoner hurries up and
verifies the story.

Now the station commandant comes
along and is also of the opinion that the
prisoner must get some other kind of
clothing. " But," he orders, " first ask
the staff doctor if his uniform can be
taken off without any danger to his
wounds." I don't have to do this, because
the wound is on his upper thigh. I hunt
up an unclaimed English cloak and, with
visible relief, the Belgian warrior crawls
out of the German lion's skin.

New prisoners are brought in — French-
men, Scotchmen, and Canadians. Many
of the first-named cough frightfully.
When they are asked where they got
that, they answer that they have had it
the whole Winter long. There is a lank,
powerful-looking noncommissioned offi-
cer among them. He makes a sign to me
and confesses confidentially that he is
very hungry. I tell him he must have
patience, as there will soon be coffee and
bread given out.

" Bread ? Black bread ? " He curls up
his nose. " May I not have a little pastry,
perhaps? "

" You just try our black bread," is my
reply. " It is the same as we have our-

selves. We are better than we are sup-
posed to be in France."

" Yes, that's true," he agrees. " They
told us that the prisoners were badly
treated in Germany. Now I see that such
is not the case. Besides, they tell you
the same thing about our prisoners in
France. But they, too, do not have it so
bad. On the contrary. I have seen some
of them myself in Brittany. They get a
quart of cider a day. There was an
enormous crop of apples last Summer.
And there is enough to eat. And besides
that, they are allowed to stroll through
the city a couple of hours every after-
noon."

I permit myself to make a mental
reservation regarding the last assertion,
but a Frenchman brought in a little later
makes the same statement.

A fairly educated and intelligent Cana-
dian joins in the conversation and puts
the question that occupies all of them
the most: "What sort of a fate awaits
the prisoners ? "

" You will have to work a few hours
a day. Still, you are paid extra for
that."

"It is tough to have to sit in close
rooms all the time."

" No," I answer, " the wooden houses
are surrounded by broad, open places. I,
myself, have seen Englishmen playing
football in a prison camp."

Then his eyes sparkle and he lets slip
the remark: " That is certainly better
than in Canada." Presumably he refers
to the camp of the civilians interned
there. I ask him why he enlisted. He
colors up and answers, with a somewhat
embarrassed smile : " Well, I knew that
my country was in danger, so I wanted
to aid it." And this smile seems to me to
betray less the embarrassment of a man
looking for a clever answer than that of
an educated person not liking to use
pathetic expressions. For the entire man
has the appearance of frankness and
decency.

In these days when fresh batches of
prisoners are coming along all the time
I have answered many more questions.
They are almost always the same ques-
tions and receive the same answers. I

890 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

have also seen convoys of unwounded
prisoners wending their way by day and
by night along lonely roads not so very
far back of the front. I have repeatedly
asked prisoners how they were being

treated. Many had requests to make;
none had a complaint. On the other
hand, I saw many acts of kindness per-
formed by the doctors, by the sisters,
and, not the fewest, by the soldiers.

A Letter Smuggled Out of Germany

By a Neutral

Portions of a private communication from a neutral writer in Germany to a friend in

neutral country.

WE are all becoming vegetarians. So
far, though there is much grum-
bling and a good deal of discom-
fort— and in some cases illness and some
suffering among invalids — we personally
cannot complain. The consumption of
meat in Germany in the last quarter of a
century had increased enormously, and
it is doubtful whether any of us would
have imagined two years ago that the
steadily growing pressure of the British
fleet would have brought about such an
entire change in our diet. We now get
one-quarter of a pound of meat and two
eggs per head per week. This sounds
very dreadful, but, on the other hand,
vegetables are abundant and asparagus
cheaper than I ever remember it. The
fish supply is still excellent, though there
is not much butter or oil to cook it in.
People of means as yet suffer little.

When I happened to go to Cologne last
week there was an excellent wagon
restaurant dinner of fish, meat, sweet
cheese, and dessert for about 85 cents,
but the difference between now and six
months ago is that whereas the waiter
formerly handed you the dishes and let
you help yourself, the practice is now for
the waiter to deal you out a small piece
of each course, much to the discontent of
some of my fellow-passengers. The
maintenance of this railway restaurant
service is, of course, intended for the
edification of traveling neutrals.

Berlin, to outward appearance, is just
as gay as ever. The long Summer days
caused by turning the clocks ahead an
hour have been aided by beautiful
weather. All the racecourses have been
active, and I believe that as much as a

million and a half marks a day have
passed through the pari-mutuel. Golf,
for which the Germans have found no
German name, and lawn tennis are popu-
lar. I hear that the rubber difficulty has
affected the supply of balls badly.
" What have you to grumble at ? " you
may ask. We grumble because every-
body not in the official world is weary
of the war — utterly weary of it. Germans
cannot understand why the Allies persist.
This week we are all beflagged on ac-
count of the defeat of Italy, which is
supposed to be " finished." There is
news, too, that Sweden is likely to be
active.

All this good news, however, does not
affect the desire for the end of the war
and the realization of German victory.
Our German neighbors speak as though
Germany were a man in possession of a
huge check which he is unable to cash.

The belief is universal that we shall
have a victorious peace before the Winter,
and the poor, of whose disaffection you
have heard, have only that consolation,
for their food conditions are trying, even
to people accustomed to live poorly.
Their talk is always of Knappheit, (scar-
city.)

It is said that twenty-two submarines
have been turned out of the Schwartz-
kopf factory in the last eight months.
That there are plenty of Zeppelins and
Parsevals can be gathered from the num-
ber that fly over Berlin each fine day.
They are so numerous that the public no
longer take any notice of them. I have
heard it whispered that since the begin-
ning of the war forty-seven Zeppelins
have been lost, " chiefly by accident." I

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

8s) 1

have also heard it said that the new Zep-
pelins cost $625,000 each.

You need not believe all you read in
the German newspapers about fashion
restrictions. Laws may be passed, but I
see no sign of any change, and the ladies
in the Unter den Linden in the mornings
seem to be dressed (making allowance for
German vagaries of taste) rather like
those in the Paris fashion plates, which
we get from Switzerland.

In my last letter I told you of the ex-
tensive use to which paper was being ap-
plied. All the shops supply paper string
for wrapping packages, and I see .now
that the soldiers' knapsacks are made of
some kind of paper, which is apparently
quite as good as leather.

War talk and war rumor are the chief
subject of German conversation every-
where. How the Kaiser's train was late-
ly bombed by English or French aviators

and several servants killed; how the
naval authorities are puzzled what to do
with the fleet, but all are agreed they
cannot divide it — it cannot operate in the
Baltic and in the North Sea at the same
time; how Swedish officers are being
trained in Berlin for Finland; how the
import of all objects of art, Oriental car-
pets, pictures, &c., has been prohibited;
and how Verdun, where the losses were
at first great, proceeds steadily on now
as an artillery wall with comparatively
few casualties.

We hear nothing from England direct-
ly, but we get the English, Swedish, and
Swiss newspapers, and, making allow-
ances for the censorships imposed by all
these countries and for the German cen-
sorship, we believe we are fairly well in-
formed as to what is going on. Much is
expected from America's intervention.
Enfin, nobody wants or expects a third
Winter in the trenches.

Marconi, the Wizard of the War

By Harold Begbie

HERE is the one universal man of
this world war. It is odd to look
at him, smoke with him, and
laugh with him, reflecting that a thought
of his brain is spun like a spider's web
all over the bloody battlefields of Europe,
all over the seas of the world, and high
above the clouds. His invention, you
feel, should belong to some legendary
hero. It is too immense a thing for a
man still living, and a young man — a
young man who has moods of frivolity,
who loves to laugh, and who is perfectly
simple, modest, and unassuming.

" Here is a man," I said chaffingly,
my hand on his arm, (I was speaking
to a High Anglican,) " who is reducing
us all to materialism."

Marconi smiled at the time, but later
on he said to me, " You don't really think,
• do you, that my work makes for ma-
terialism? " Then in his quiet way he
added, " I often think that d'Annunzio
came pretty near to truth when he sug-
gested that wireless is something of a

symbol for religion. We send our
thoughts through silence to one who is
invisible. And a good deal of the process
is still a mystery. In any case, the uni-
verse is mysterious enough. The more I
investigate, the more I wonder."

When we were talking of wireless in
the war he said to me, " I only wish I
might tell you what it has done. It really
is rather romantic. Some day I think
people will be a good deal astonished, the
Germans not less than other people. But,
you see, we mustn't talk about these
things. We are all sworn to secrecy, and,
of course, the whole essence of it is the
silence in which it works. People say
that without wireless the war would have
been quite different. That is true enough.
But very few people know how extraordi-
narily and universally this business of
wireless has penetrated the whole region
of strategy and organization. Some day,
however, the story will be told. It will
make pretty reading."

He shifted on his chair for a minute or

892 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

two, and then said slowly and thought-
fully: " There are other matters we are
hot allowed to talk about. But I feel it
might be a good thing if we did talk
about them. Why they are not talked
about I cannot conceive."

" What things do you mean ? " I asked.

" International relations," he replied.
" Let us begin with the relations which
exist between Italy and England. Why
cannot the people in Italy be told what
England has done and is still doing for
them ? Our statesmen know it, and they
are grateful enough; but the people do
not know it. And those people know
other things, on the contrary, which puz-
zle them. They say to themselves, Eng-
land is our ally, and England is the
greatest coal-producing country in the
world; why, then, do we have to pay £8
a ton for coal? — surely England must
know how hard it is for us to keep our
manufactures going.' And they do not
understand why the British Board of
Trade should prohibit them from export-
ing to England manufactured articles the
raw material for which they imported
from England on the understanding that
they would be able to export the finished
article. Italy is enthusiastic for the war,
and her feelings for England are as cor-
dial as ever; but these things I have
spoken about worry the people, worry the
democracy, and some one ought to put
them right."

He spoke of the need for greater
human sympathy, and criticised states-
men for too often leaving human sym-
pathy out of their considerations. " In
all countries it is the same," he said,
" and yet surely statesmen must see —
the thing stares them in the face — that
people are drawn together far more by
natural affinities than by political in-

terests. Our people in Italy, for example,
would be far more pleased and delighted
by some trivial act of consideration on
England's part than by a huge loan.
How grateful they would be if your
people did something in the matter of
freight to help their exports! I wish
we could get more humanity into Govern-
ment offices. This war is such a chance.
With a very little trouble the Allies
might create fresh enthusiasm for the
Alliance among all the democracies.
Italy ought to be told what England has
done for her. And your people ought
to be told what Italy has done (I am
not speaking of her fight against Aus-
tria) for England. It would pull us
closer together. It would give a more
vital spirit to all we do. It would be
something like a light brought into a
dark room. There is too much darkness.
I am all for perfect confidence between
the allied nations, and you cannot have
this perfect confidence where the democ-
racies are so largely in the dark. Let us
have light — the light of information and
discussion. I want my people and your
people to be enthusiastic for each other —
the democracies, I mean — so that during
the war and after the war they may both
feel how natural and how helpful it is for
them to be allied together."

I find that this is the subject upper-
most in his mind. He visits all the
battle fronts, goes up in the air in aero-
plane and balloon, descends under the
sea in submarines, and is in touch with
the whole wireless of the war; but his
thoughts are with the wasted opportuni-
ties of statesmen who might be drawing
the democracies of Jhe Alliance so much
closer. He has drawn the battlefields
close together. He would far sooner draw
the peoples together.

Adventures of a French Trooper

CHRISTIAN MALLET was a trooper
in the Twenty-second Regiment of
Dragoons when it marched out of
Rheims on the declaration of war and
hastened to the aid of the Belgians. He
tells the story of the following ten

months in his book, " Impressions and
Experiences of a French Trooper, 1914-
1915," (E. P. Dutton & Co.) They ad-
vanced in forced marches, spending ten,
fifteen, twenty hours in the saddle, once
covering nearly eighty miles in twenty-

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

893

four hours. They went forward and
retreated in baking sun or pouring rain,
knowing little or nothing of destination
or purpose.

On Sept. 6 his regiment was in the
thick of the battle of the Marne: "The
struggle extended all around us from
one horizon to the other, and if it was
incomprehensible to our officers it was
still more so to us private soldiers. In
the torrid mid-day heat we kept advanc-
ing, without knowing where or why."
For two days they marched hither and
yon, " under the scorching sun, gnawed
by hunger, parched with thirst, ex-
hausted by fatigue. All around us the
guns thundered. And we knew nothing,
absolutely nothing."

On the 8th his cavalry division was
sent to intercept and seize a German
convoy, and they started off, overjoyed
that at last they had a definite thing to
do. A detachment feeling its way
through a wood was surprised by the
Germans and saved itself only by dash-
ing through, with horses ungirthed,
saddles slipping, kits unbuckled. The
Germans were all around them and they
made for the depths of the forest, where
they took shelter in a deep, thickly grown
gorge. For three days neither men nor
horses had food or drink.

The patrols learned that the enemy
held all the issues from the forest, " and
we were taken in a vise, prisoners in this
gulf of trees, reduced to dying of hunger
and thirst." Near the end of the first
day in the gorge two officers of Uhlans
came riding by on a road just above their
hiding place. " Now they were right on
us, so near we could have touched them,
and they did not know there were two
hundred carbines that could have
knocked them over at point-blank
range. * * * Suddenly their faces
contracted, as if confronted by some
apparition. This French regiment must
have seemed to them a phantom of the
forest, some impossible and illusory
vision seen in the shadow of the leaves.
Their horses stopped short and, for the
space of a second, their riders looked like
two figures in stone. Then in a flash
they understood and fled at full speed."

So, the alarm being given, it was

necessary for the Frenchmen to seek
other concealment and to throw the
enemy off the scent by taking ways that
would seem impassable for horses. They
went on through the almost impenetrable
forest, frightening herds of deer, across
gulches and fallen trees, men and horses
trembling with hunger and fatigue. But
they still joked together and passed the
jest from one to another. Instead of
reaching the heart of the forest they
presently found themselves near its edge.
And in front of them, stretching some
miles along the road, were the convoys
they had been sent to take. Surrounded
by the enemy, they waited for the dark-
ness of the night and made as silent a
dash as possible in the hope of eluding
the Germans.

On and on they went with silence all
around them, except for the hooting of
owls that sometimes followed and some-
times preceded them, until, finally, think-
ing they had reached safety, some of the
men, giving way to fatigue, bent forward
on their saddles, " drunk with sleep."
They had fallen into a trap. Suddenly
" the black forest seemed to spit fire," a
hail of bullets battered them, men and
horses fell, and the remaining troopers
galloped furiously away. Portions of the
two squadrons met and reformed after-
ward, charged the enemy, got away,
reconnoitred, were separated — all this
time within the enemy's lines — wandered
about, blundered into German detach-
ments, almost fell into the enemy's
bivouac, and, on the fifth day spent with-
out food or drink and almost without
sleep, they were rescued by some squad-
rons of French Hussars.

M. Mallet saw these troops approach-
ing, but could not see whether they were
French or German. " I looked, I looked
with my eyes pressing out of my head.
* * * At times I forced myself not to
look. I looked again, counted twenty,
and then devoured space with my
eyes. * * * I turned my reeling head
toward my comrades and I fell on the
grass crying like a madman, in words
without sequence."

Early in May of last year M. Mallet,
by that time become a Lieutenant, was
in the first-line trenches at the battle of

804 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Time?

Loos. At the head of his men he charged
the German trenches through barriers of
fire, suffocating vapor, and exploding
shells, carrying one trench after another,
until he was wounded in his shoulder on
the parapet of the last trench. They
took the position, and Lieutenant Mallet,
with a hole in his shoulder as big as his
fist and the blood running down his back,
found himself in sole command of his
own and another company. He refused
to go back. " Some one," he says,
" passed me a flask of ether and I
propped myself against the parapet."
They dug themselves in, they repulsed at-
tacks, they worked and fought all day.
After ten hours of it M. Mallet set forth
to try to find his Colonel, knowing, he

says, " what could be done if the will to
do were strong."

" Sometimes I had to climb over pyra-
mids of bodies, sometimes I had to go
outside the trench, amid the whistling of
bullets and the noise of shells which were
bursting on all sides. * * * A con-
tinuous groaning sound escaped me, my
sight became blurred and I walked as if
in a delirium. I went round the same
sector several times, asking every one
where the Colonel was. And they would
ask me ' What Colonel?' I had for-
gotten, and then everything became
vague."

At last some stretcher bearers found
him and carried him to the nearest aid
post, whence he was sent to the hospital.

A Japanese Prayer for Those Killed in the

Great War

By a Resident of Tokio

UNUSUAL preparations were made
one morning in Shussanji, or the
Going-out-of-the-Mountain Temple,
a quaint little place of worship hidden
away in a labyrinth of crooked streets
in a poor quarter of Tokio — preparations
for a celebration on the Sumida River
to pray for the repose of the souls of all
those slain in battle, regardless of na-
tionality, and to scatter scraps of paper
bearing the image of Jizo Sama over the
waves, one for each departed spirit.

The chief priest, an aged man, with
his assistants and the supporters of the
temple had been busy for days in ad-
vance and all was ready. The red and
gold altar of Shussanji was heaped up
with offerings of rice and fruit, and a
plain wooden tablet had been placed
there bearing the words:

" To console all those souls who have
passed into the Beyond because of War."

The old priest, his bald head shining,
clad in his coarse cotton robe of gray,
officiated before the altar, and when the
last prayers were uttered, the people
formed a procession to the Sumida River,
that was but a short distance away.

Near a bridge an unusual craft vras
waiting, a deep cargo-junk roofed over
with canvas bearing bold black Buddhist
symbols, and at the bow fluttered a white
cotton banner on which was written in
large black characters:

" A service to console the spirits of the
whole world's departed ones."

Quickly the priest and his parishioners
embarked and squatted down upon the
cushions spread over the bottom of the
boat, and the central figure in the re-
ligious ceremony, as gray and faded as
the robes he wore, took up his position
in front of the altar. A piece of soiled
embroidery did duty for an altar cloth,
and there was set up a tarnished statue
of Jizo Sama. Just below were three
wooden tablets. The central one read:
" Pray for the whole world's departed
ones' souls"; the others: "Pray for the
great victory of the Imperial Army,"
and " Pray for the great victory of the
Allies."

The priest placed some sweet-scented
squares of incense upon the coals in a
small brass brazier, and as the clouds
rose into the air the boatman with his

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

895

long bamboo pole pushed off from the
shore, the holy man's voice was heard
chanting a sutra — all the worshippers,
old women and young, men and children,
murmuring in undertone " Name Amida
Butsu ! "

Thus the floating temple turned down
stream, taking a passage between the
cargo-laden junks with their bellowing
sails, motor boats and small steamers,
noisy tugs pulling passenger scows, and
all the traffic that is borne upon the
bosom of the city's muddy watercourse
that empties into the shallow reaches of
Tokio Bay.

Out upon the Sumida the ceremony of
scattering the papers .was begun. Old
and young with their hands full leaned
over the sides of the junk throwing away
the sacred papers with the effigy of Jizo
Sama stamped thereon — each meant for
the solace of the soul of some soldier
slain in battle. Those who have mourned
dear ones slain in France, Belgium, or
Russia would have been touched to the
quick by this simple service of humble
Japanese people, given for all that great
host of unknown who have laid down
their lives for their countries.

And while the priest intoned, the in-
cense rose into the air, the metal and the
wooden drums were beaten, the worship-
pers chanted unceasingly, and the squares
of paper fluttered out of the boat on all

sides and were carried away by the wind
over the water to make a long v/ake be-
hind the vessel.

For three hours the temple junk floated
down the river, the papers falling noise-
lessly over the waves, as the banks of the
Sumida were passed. Now the course of
the strange craft, was underneath a
bridge, or past factories with their tall
smoking chimneys, by densely crowded
rows of dwellings, by groups of grimy
workmen, and as far as Tsukijima, the
island at the mouth of the river, the boat-
man poling out into the calm waters of
Tokio Bay shrouded in* its gray fog.

A halt was made at noon, when the
wholesome fare that had been prepared at
Shussanji was brought forth, thin white
wooden boxes filled with rice and vege-
tables, while an old woman brewed the
tea over a little charcoal fire.

The spot at which the stop had been
made was a sacred one, for in that exact
place a Jizo Sama stone had been buried
under the water. Here after the simple
noonday meal a special service was held
before the boat returned upstream.

At the conclusion of this service a long
narrow piece of wood was driven into the
sandy bottom of the bay. The inscrip-
tion upon it read literally as follows :

" Herewith the service is held for the
whole-world - departed-soldiers-to-console-
tablet."

King Victor Emmanuel at the Front

[Translated from L'lllustrazione Italiana for CURRENT HISTORY]

FUR automobiles were climbing up
the military road from Caporetto.
Up there, between Mount Corada
and the Cormons road, two little black
dots — two aeroplanes — appeared in the
sky.

At a certain point the airmen found
themselves over the road, perpendicu-
larly above the four autos. They
seemed to fly lower, to examine, as
though to see whether it was worth
while to waste a bomb on them. But
the decision was, no! Then, with a
brisk movement, they turned their prows,

put on speed, disappeared in the dis-
tance. And, as the automobiles resumed
their normal speed, one of the passengers
turned, smiling;

"A lost opportunity! " It was Joffre
the Taciturn, coming back from a visit
to the trenches of the upper Isonzo.
Cadorna, Porro, the Duke of Aosta,
turned toward the second car. The
King, his gray cap pressed down over
his eyes, was also laughing; and he
repeated :

" A lost opportunity ! "

While the battle of Gorizia was raging

896

CURRENT! HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine ®f The New York Times

furiously along the Isonzo an auto-
mobile, flying along the road, met a line
of wagons carrying ammunition to the
front. King Victor Emmanuel bade his
chauffeur go a little to one side, leaving
the road clear.

" Let the ammunition pass! " he said;
"my men need it urgently at this
moment. The King can wait! "

As he sat at breakfast among the rocks
an infantry soldier passed. The King
called him:

" Don't you want to eat a mouthful? "

The man flushed jred and cast down his
eyes. He knew not what to reply. The
King said:

" Oh, it's only a little cheese and the
bread you. get every day ! "

And the soldier had to sit down in the
meadow beside his sovereign and to share
the rations of the King.

The King is incredibly abstemious.
When General Joffre was his guest at
the Italian Army Headquarters the King
offered him a banquet with the following
bill of fare:

Vermicelli soup,

A plate of meat,

Fruit,

the supper of a college student. The
King wishes to share not only the
dangers of his soldiers but also their
privations.

What the War Has Done to Petrograd

By Perceval Gibbon

English War Correspondent

WHEN I was last here in Petrograd
the war in the west of Russia
was still distant from the capital.
Warsaw was intact, Vilna was still
the headquarters of Husky's rearguard.
What of horror and disorder the war
had wrought among the civilian popula-
tion was far from here; the throng upon
the Nevsky Prospect had not seen the
women kneeling in the snow at Warsaw,
begging of the passersby. The great
dining room of the Hotel de France re-
flected nothing of the misery of the Jews
who straggled the length of the long and
awful Polish roads, who died in ditches,
or ate grass like beasts; the opera was
open, and there was drink to be had by
those who knew their way about. Now,
it is otherwise. Hindenburg's great
drive, with artillery banked twenty bat-
teries deep, so that each square yard of
earth had its bursting shell, has altered
the geography of Russia; Warsaw and
Vilna have gone the way of Brussels and
Antwerp, and there are thirteen million
refugees adrift in Russia. From Kiev to
Nijni Novgorod their distress afflicts the
country. Petrograd, that was a great
city of two million people, is now a

greater city by a million of added popu-
lation that must, for the larger part, be
fed by the contributions of the charitable;
there is something in the Russian con-
ception of the situation — something alto-
gether too Russian and subtle for a
foreigner to comprehend — which forbids
their being set to work for their living.

The few thousand of them who had a
little money salted away, professional
men, men with business and savings in
cash, and so forth, are those who clutter
the hotels, and have raised the prices of
rooms and apartments to three or four
times the normal rates. There were
rooms I had in Petrograd at the com-
mencement of the war which^cost me 200
rubles a month — say £20, or $100; when,
upon my arrival a few days ago, I in-
quired for them again, I was told that
they were vacant for the moment, and
could be had for 700 rubles a month —
and an offer of 600 was refused. The
others, those of the refugees who have
got away with their skins and nothing
more, wretched men, women, and children
whose mere existence the war has under-
mined and made precarious, live like
birds, fed at " feeding stations " twice a

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

897

day by the charities organized to that
end. There is one such station near the
great railway depot which serves the
Baltic Province railways. Here is a
shrine to St. George of Russia, a very
splendid affair, before which there are '
never less than half a hundred lighted
candles. Ladies in the large white coifs
of Russian Red Cross sisters are busy
washing babies, serving food, giving out
clothing — a great and gracious work.
Among those who come for food are al-
ways a dozen or so of lonely folk, men
or women, who wait when the distribu-
tion is over, to go upon the platforms
and see the arrival of the trains. They
are people who have been separated, in
the crush and stress of flight from the
threatened areas of the war, from their
families — wives who have lost their hus-
bands and children, bewildered men who
were husbands and fathers, whom war
has divorced and made childless. There
are children, too, orphans for all that
any one can tell, adrift upon a world that
has gone blood-mad. These wait, taking
their food when it is given to them, sleep-
ing on the floor, patient and docile as
only Russians, who have yet the Orient
' alive in their veins, can be patient, watch-
ing the incoming of the trains with
indomitable hope that from some reeking
third-class carriage, foul with festering
humanity like a tomb, there may descend
to the daylight the faces for which they
watch.

And sometimes they come. Any of
the ladies can tell you of such incidents
— of the quavering yell of incredulous
recognition and joy that thrills the crowd
like an alarm; of the spectacle of a man,
crazy with gladness, tearing his way
• through the thronged strangers, of the
strained white face, tragic with fear and
hope, that meets him, and relaxes in tears
of utter relief at the last.

A million refugees, ranging from mill-
ionaires to penniless peasants, make a
difference to any community. One effect
in Petrograd has been to help to make
the ruble a coin of no fixed value.
Other things have aided; the great ex-
cess of imports over exports, the disor-
ganization of railroads, and so forth,
have played their part; and the ^result

helps to make the city still further un-
recognizable. Some commodities that are
scarce have increased in cost by three to
four hundred per cent.; others, equally
scarce, have hardly increased at all. The
ruble, that was once worth about a hun-
dred cigarettes, or a cab ride of an hour,
or a luncheon of two courses, or extra-
special consideration when presented as
a douceur to the doorkeeper of a Minis-
try, now varies in value two or three
times a day. That is at the banks, when
one changes foreign money, but what is
worse, is the fluctuation of prices in the
shops. A rumor strikes root among the
traderg that there is a block of traffic on
the Archangel line, and at once values
jump like fleas — values that were al-
ready exorbitant. Sugar that costs in
the morning 8d. per pound, fetches Is. 3d.
before evening; wood for fufcl, with a
forest at the doors of the city that
stretches thence to the Bering Straits,
see-saws between five rubles .and fifteen
a " sazhen." And for a sample of fixed
rates of commonplace articles, the things
which ordinarily cost nothing to speak
of, the penholder for writing this article,
as ordinary a piece of timber as ever
came out of a tree, cost 50 kopecks — say,
one shilling.

The shopkeeper has a shibboleth of ex-
planation, to which he is as faithful as a
lover. He explained my penholder by the
excuse that railway freights had risen.
A Russian comic paper recently had a
cartoon — a man complaining of the price
of a diamond dog collar, with the plaus-
ible jeweler leaning across the counter to
explain to him. " You see," the jeweler
was saying, reasonably, " the war has
put the railway freights up so much that
our diamonds are costing us more."

The truth of the matter is that Russia
is organized for war in precisely the same
degree as England. In both countries
the hope is tenacious that the existing
arrangement of life and the social order
may avail to win the war, despite the
enemy's miracles of national organiza-
tion and solidarity. In neither country
do those in charge of national destinies
desire to see new elements surge into
power to supersede them; in both, the
existing order is on its trial.

"A Plague o' Both Your Houses"

By Dr. Georg Brandes

Famous Scandinavian Critic

Dr. Brandes has asserted ever since the war began that both sides are to blame. The
article herewith, translated for CURRENT HISTORY, appeared recently in the Politiken of Copen-
hagen under the title " An Appeal." It attracted much attention and was answered by
William Archer in an open letter which we also reproduce.

EACH of the great powers declares
that the war it is waging is a
war of defense. They have all
been attacked ; they are all fight-
ing for their existence. For all of them
murder and lies are necessary means of
defense. Then, since none of the powers,
by their own showing, wanted war, in
Heaven's name let them make peace!

Peace, however, after the passing of
twenty-two months appears further away
than ever. Each group of warring pow-
ers must lead civilization to victory,
which self-same civilization either is
called intellectual superiority, or right,
or liberty, or the civilian spirit as against
militarism.

Civilization! The first fruit of this
civilization has been that the truth-de-
stroying Russian censorship has spread
itself over the whole earth. The second
is that we have returned to the time of
human sacrifices. But there is this dif-
ference, that in the days of the old bar-
barism four or five prisoners of war
would be sacrificed to a dreaded deity,
while now we offer up four or five mill-
ion to the idols that we worship.

It is Lamennais who says : " Satan
inspired the oppressors of the people
with a devilish thought. He said to
them : ' Take from every family the
strongest men and give them weapons. I
will give them two idols which they shall
name honor and faithfulness, and a law
which they shall call dutiful obedience.
They shall worship these idols and blind-
ly subject themselves to this law.' "

We follow this warfare against mili-
tarism, during which the force of mili-
tarism spreads itself to the only nation
that had kept itself apart and free from
it. Everywhere civil power is set aside —
the civil power and spirit for the su-
premacy of which over the military

power war has been waged for more
than a century.

We follow this conflict for liberty,
during which liberty's spokesman, as
well as the champions of force, stop each
ship, search each cargo, and open every
letter, even private correspondence be-
tween neutrals.

We follow this warfare for a higher
culture, during which Germany has
trodden Belgium under foot; Austria-
Hungary, Serbia; England, Greece; Rus-
sia, East Prussia and Poland; this war-
fare for right, during which right every-
where is robbed of its strength and con-
sideration of State takes its place; this
battling for the independence of the
smaller nations, during which this very
independence is being violated from both
quarters, set aside, destroyed.

In the countries at war, as a matter
of course, the chief desire of the armies
is to gain victories. But the civilian
population everywhere moans for peace.
The Governments, which sit high on
horseback, press the spurs against the
side of the tired animal. The wish for
peace dare not find expression. In the
neutral countries public opinion consid-
ers it unjustifiable to speak of peace.
Public opinion, on the whole, takes sides
with this or that of the fighting units,
and meanwhile forgets to put its weight
in the scale for peace.

Of the neutral powers at present, one
is of greater consequence than all the
others together. Does the United States
of America prefer to make money out
of the war rather than use its influence
to bring about peace? All in all, does
no one stand for peace except common
sense and wholesome sentiment?

That peace cry soon to be heard in all
countries is called cowardly. But if hu-

'A PLAGUE O' BOTH YOUR HOUSES

899

mankind keeps silent the very stones
will cry aloud from among the ruins.
Their cry is not one of revenge, but of
peace. And where the stones stay silent,
fields and pastures will cry out, watered,
as they are, with blood, and fertilized
with human bodies.

The rule of spite is over the whole
world. The solitary joy is to inflict in-
jury in the interest of self-preservation.
Torpedoes are being launched with
great success. Excellent results mark
bombardments. Hej-e a single individual
shoots down his twentieth flier, and
there is great jubilation. Ask the ques-
tion, Why do you rejoice? The answer
is, The purpose justifies the means!

Cruelty is termed duty, sympathy is
now treason. The Germans suffer hun-
ger and misery; the allied peoples rejoice.
The Belgians and Serbians are coerced
and brought down: the Germans jubilate.
The Poles go hungry, the Jews are re-
duced to the most miserable poverty.
Those at war are unable to make amends
for all the misfortunes. All the 'na-
tions at war are proud of the heroic self-
sacrifice of their men and their per-
severance. From both sides we hear
that the lowest passions have been let
loose among their opponents, and, sad to
say, both are right.

The Central Powers declared that they
desire peace. But there is no evidence
to show that they wish to concede any-
thing to attain peace. The allied na-
tions do not want peace until they ob-
tain that "definite victory" for which
they have been aiming with slight suc-
cess for almost two years.

Whatever is to happen in the future,
however many battles may be won or
lost, no matter how many valuable ships
may be sunk or airships shot down, how-
ever many men are killed, wounded or
taken prisoners, one thing is certain — all
must end with a truce and negotiations.

Why not, therefore, begin negotiations
now? It does not seem as if there were
much to be gained by continued mur-
der. Peace is like the Sibyl's books or
treasures, which one must buy, but which
become scarcer and more costly with each
day that passes.
, We know this : We shall await the com-

ing of annihilation. But there will be
no annihilation — only wholesale murder.
None of the battling groups can be ex-
terminated. And if some say that it is
not the purpose to crush Germany, only
its militarism, then it is just the same
as saying that there is no thought of in-
juring the porcupine, but merely to tear
out its quills.

Both parties want to keep on to the
bitter end. With each day this bitterness
increases. What may be gained by post-
ponement of peace negotiations is lost
many times over by the continuation of
the war.

It really seems as if there were no
other means for settling human strife
than through mines and grenades. How
will the future judge this? The verdict
will be that in the whole of Europe there
was to be found not one statesman. With
a single great statesman on each side,
the world war would never have broken
out. With one great statesman in either
group the war would not have lasted a
year. As it was, the Generals took the
power from the statesmen.

The future will have this to say: It
was a time when men regarded the era
of the religious wars as barbarous, yet
failed to comprehend that national wars
were much worse. It was a time when
men looked upon the wars of Cabinet
Ministers as antiquated, and could not
understand that commercial struggles
were still more crude. The history of the
religious wars constituted a dismal farce.
TKe history of the world war was a
stupid tragedy.

It would be better for this war to end
without too great humiliation for either
side. Otherwise the humiliated group
will merely ponder on how to begin the
next war. And it should be remembered
that whatever humiliation may be in-
flicted on the enemy, it can bring resti-
tution of not a single human life. Every
human life is of value. All men are not
alike, but there is slight consolation,
when one side loses a thousand, in the
fact that the enemy lost ten thousand.
Who knows but that among the one
thousand there was an individual who
would have brought great glory to his
country and become the benefactor of

900 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

mankind for all time? There may have
been a Shakespeare or a Newton, a Kant
or a Goethe, a Moliere or a Pasteur, a
Copernicus, a Rubens, a Tolstoy among
the hundreds of thousands of twenty-
year-old Englishmen, Germans, French-
men, Poles, Belgians, Russians who have
fallen. How does the change of a fron-
tier line, the conquest of a province,
measure against the loss of such a per-
sonality? The gain is but temporary, the
loss irreparable. Whatever is won con-
cerns only a nation; the loss is a loss to
the whole human race.

We see how during the war the wealth
of mankind dwindles so that at last there
will be no one able to pay the cost. But

the loss of human values, the most seri-
ous kind of impoverishment, is not real-
ized. What we are witnessing is that
the white race is destroying its estab-
lished superiority in the minds of the
black, the brown, and the yellow peoples.
The whites have employed the others,
have praised them for cutting down white
men. What else can we expect than that
such tools will recoil upon the users?

The press of the warring countries has
considered it a particular task to incite
to further fury; to enhance the measure
of enthusiasm. The press ought to re-
member that the destructive hatred thus
engendered will long survive the war
itself.

The Sin of Color-Blind Neutrality

By William Archer

Noted English Critic

The foregoing " Appeal " by Dr. Brandes was answered by William Archer in an open
letter entitled " The Giant Lie," which he followed up a little later in The London Daily News
with a spirited retort to the Danish Minister of the Interior on similar lines, under the title
" The War Machine: Did It Start Automatically? " The two articles are essentially one, and
are herewith presented in their entirety.

A PLAGUE of both your houses! " is
the burden of an appeal for peace
issued by Dr. Georg Brandes in
the Copenhagen Politiken. This is a not
quite unnatural attitude of mind into
which a good many neutrals have lately
fallen. They are sick and tired of the
war. They have forgotten, if they have
ever understood, the circumstances of its
origin. Absorbed in the material horrors
of the struggle, they lose sight of the
ideals at stake. They blame the Allies
for declining to sacrifice these ideals
more than they blame the Central Pow-
ers for scorning and outraging them.
Thus their neutrality takes on a pro-
German tinge, of which perhaps they are
scarcely aware, but which is none the
less deplorable. That is why I have ven-
tured to address to Dr. Brandes a letter,
of which the following are the opening
passages. The remainder must appear in
another form.
Dear Mr. Brandes :

You have published "An Appeal " to the
belligerent powers to return to sanity and

arrange terms of peace. In the abstract, such
an appeal must command the sympathy of
every humane and reasonable man. Yet this
pronouncement is disappointing to your ad-
mirers and friends — if I may so style myself
— inasmuch as it is not really calculated to
further the end you have in view. Will you
allow me to tell you why, in my judgment,
it must fall on deaf ears?

Not, certainly, because we are disinclined
to hear you. To whose judgment should we
listen more gladly? You are unquestionably
the first critic of the age, and probably the
leading intellect of the whole neutral world,
at all events, on this side of the Atlantic.
You are not only a scholar, but a man of
the living world. You have fought a splendid
fight for freedom of thought, and have ex-
pressed in no uncertain terms your detesta-
tion for political tyranny. Whose approval
could have done more to encourage us?
To whose considered and reasoned criti-
cism could we have listened with greater
respect?

But, as a matter of fact, you have withheld
from us both these advantages. You have
carried the art of neutrality to a very high
pitch. You stand indifferent between truth
and falsehood, between humanity and in-
humanity, between right and wrong. I am
almost inclined to say to you, with one who
was no neutral in the fight for freedom :

THE SIN OF COLOR-BLIND NEUTRALITY

901

" Kennst du die Holle des Dante nicht,

Die schreckligen Terzetten? "
— and then to refer you to the remarks on
neutrals in the third canto of the " Inferno."
Is it possible you do not see that this war,
'mad and monstrous though it be, is a war
in which everything turns on the question of
right and wrong?— a question not to be dis-
missed with a shrug and a verdict of
" Rogues all! " Your " Appeal " begins thus:

Each of the great powers declares that
the war it is waging is a war of defense.
They have all been attacked; they are all
fighting for their existence. For all of
them murder and lies are necessary
means of defense. Then since none of the
powers, by their own showing, wanted
war, in Heaven's name le.t them make
peace!

Suppose, my dear Master, that you had
taken to law instead of literature, and had
become a Judge; suppose that two men were
brought before you, each declaring that he
had been murderously assaulted by the
other, and one of them unquestionably in
possession of the other's watch, purse, and
pocketbook; should you feel that you had
done all your duty demanded if you said,
" They are doubtless both liars, or both
hallucinated; bind them over to keep the
peace, and let the one who holds the swag
return (say) the watch, but keep the rest of
the plunder"? Should you not consider the
possibility that one of them might be telling
the truth? Should you not call evidence on
the point and examine it carefully? Should
you not recognize some antecedent proba-
bility that the man who was certainly armed
to the teeth, and certainly took the other
unprepared, was the real aggressor? And
should you not think that probability
heightened if you found his pockets bulging
with tracts which declared fighting an act
of religion, and robbery under arms the
chief duty of man?

"'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate"—
and took up an attitude of ironic neutrality.
But in this matter there is a truth and there
is a falsehood ; and the merits of the present
situation, as of the whole war, depend upon
the question: Who is the liar? If Germany
is telling the truth— if she was the victim of
an unprovoked attack— then we, in carrying
on the war, are merely piling crime upon
crime. Eve/i in that case Germany would
not be entirely justified. Nothing could ex-
cuse her invasion of Belgium, nothing could
cleanse her hands of the blood of that un-
happy country. But many of her other pro-
ceedings would wear a very different aspect.
Much may be pardoned to a man wantonly
attacked and fighting for his life, which
would be unpardonable in one who was him-
self the aggressor. Submarine ruthlessness,
indiscriminate civilian-slaying, poison . gas
and liquid fire are not pretty or chivalrous
methods of warfare ; but a man set upon by
assassins is not to be severely censured if,
in his defense, he hits below the belt.
But if the man who hits below the belt,

who sticks at nothing, who resorts to every
base and diabolical device he can think of,
is not the attacked, but the attacker, the
man who willed and planned and executed
the murderous assault— what are we to say
of him? what are we to do with him? Is it
to the interest of the world at large that he
should get off scot-free and be able to tell
himself that his spirited policy was in some
measure successful, though the fight was not
quite the " frischer, frohlicher Kriek " he had
hoped for? And is it the part of a good
European to be neutral not only in act but
in feeling, and to urge that in the interests of
humanity the bandit should be allowed to
get away with his booty? We shall fight
on, my dear Master, in spite of your dis-
approval, because we believe that the worst
thing that could happen to humanity would
•be the triumph of the giant Lie, and of the
abominable devices of massacre which it has
called to its aid. * * *

Here I must break off. In the sequel
I attempt to justify the expression " the
giant Lie," and express (among other
things) my surprise that Dr. Brandes
should speak bitterly of England's open-
ing of neutral letters and say no word of
Germany's sinking of Scandinavian ships
and murder of Scandinavian seamen.

DID THE WAR MACHINE START
AUTOMATICALLY?

I ventured recently to remonstrate with
Dr. Georg Brandes on the color-blind neu-
trality displayed in his appeal for peace
at any price. The same defect of vision
does something to mar an otherwise ad-
mirable and inspiring address delivered
the other day to the " Radical Youth " of
Dr. Brandes's fatherland by the Minister
of the Interior, Herr Ove Rode. I make
no apology for quoting at length this
striking passage :

We still seem to hear the dull reverberation
of the march of millions to the frontiers, al-
most two years ago ; and, through the tramp
of feet and the clatter of hooves, the shrill,
insistent asseverations from high places that
no one willed the war, no one wanted it, no
one was attacking, every one was standing
on the defensive. If this be true, then the
ironclad system which the world had created
snatched the reins from the hands of its
creators. The machine came to life and
threw the men aside. A vast amount of
genius and strength had for generations been
expended on perfecting an organism of steel
and explosives, into which human beings en-
tered only as mechanical details. Everywhere
it was designed, we were told, solely for the
preservation of peace ! But one day in July,
1914, the machinery was in full working or-

902 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

der, screwed up to its highest pitch, needing
only the releasing of one spring to set the
wheels in motion. Suddenly the spring
clicked and the mountain of steel and flame
came to life and hurtled forward. The can-
nons se-t off for the frontier of their own ac-
cord, and men mechanically followed. The
rush, once started, could not be stopped. The
fairy tales of many nations tell of two magic
words, one of which can set forces in motion,
while the other can arrest them. The second
is forgotten, and disaster follows. Humanity
is now desperately seeking for the word that
can stay the rage and ruin of war. All over
the world people are racking their brains for
the forgotten spell. Not long ago they
thought they had found it in America— but it
v.-as not the right word.

This is a brilliantly imaginative picture
of what happened — or rather is alleged to
have happened — in Germany. When the
Kaiser says, " Ich hab' es nicht gewollt "
— " I did not will it " — he is practically
pleading that the machine came to life of
its own accord, and ran away with him.
And so, very probably, it did. Very
probably there came a moment when he
felt, to his dismay, that things had got
beyond his control, and he stood, like
Frankenstein, gazing horrorstruck at his
Monster's mad career. But we must re-
member— what I fear Herr Rode forgets
— that all this talk of machines and mon-
sters is only metaphor and mythology.
The cannons did not roll off spontane-
ously to the frontiers. They were set in
motion by the deliberate will of certain
men — probably a quite small number of
men. The Kaiser may or may not have
been one of them — if he was not, that
merely proves him to be a noxious nullity.
But whoever these men may have been,
it is quite certain that they were in Aus-
tria and" Germany, and nowhere else.

Can Herr Rode doubt that the war ma-
chine of his fable, the war machine par
excellence, was that which was made in
Germany, along with a philosophy de-
claring it to be the noblest and most
beneficent of human inventions? Just as
the British Parliament is the mother of
Parliaments, so the German war machine
is the mother of war machines. It is, or
rather it was in 1914, a long way the
first in mechanical perfection. The other
war machines of Europe, though forced

most unwillingly to attempt a ruinous
emulation of the German model, were
well known to be inferior in instant effi-
ciency. Even if there were no direct evi-
dence of the Allies* will to peace, it would
be incredible on the face of it that they
should wantonly have challenged the Ger-
man monster. But the positive evidence
is overwhelming for any one who has
eyes to read. I will only refer here to the
notorious fact, which Herr Rode seems to
forget, that the magic words which let
the monsters loose were in every case
spoken by the Central Empires, first by
Austria, then, to right and left, by Ger-
many. And for the operation of the Ger-
man machine, Herr Rode has only to look,
like the Chancellor, at the map of Europe.
Everywhere it has been checked; but
everywhere it showed a terrific initial
velocity, eloquent of the intense will to
conquer which had inspired the men who
perfected it.

It needs no sociological investigation to
assure us that we, and our fathers, and
our grandfathers — in short, all partakers
in purblind, covetous, cantankerous hu-
man nature — must share the general re-
sponsibility for the fact that war is stiil
possible in the world. No one pretends
that the stupidity and sluggishness of
imagination which has hindered the com-
ing of the millennium is peculiar to Ger-
many. Nor is it doubtful that the capi-
talistic organization of society, which is
common to all Europe, fosters the tend-
ency. It creates on the one hand the
class which is ever longing for fresh con-
tinents to exploit, and on the other hand
it provides a plentiful supply of " Kanon-
cnfutter." We are all responsible in so
far as we have failed to remedy the social
injustices and extirpate the economic su-
perstitions which lie at the root of war in
general. But that does not make us all
equally responsible for this particular
war. It is foolish, no doubt, to build a
town of inflammable instead of fireproof
materials; but when a man sets fire to
his neighbor's house, and the whole town
is reduced to ashes, we do not say that all
the citizens are equally guilty of arson.
\Ve send to penal servitude the man who
actually kindled the blaze.

Those Whom the War Has Broken

By John Galsworthy

Eminent English Novelist and Playwright
[By arrangement with The London Morning Post]

I DON'T know how other people feel,
but when in the streets there passes
some poor fellow who a few months
ago was stronger and more active
than one's self, had before him many more
years of enjoyment and utility, almost a
boy, perhaps, and who is now to be for-
ever like a bird with __

a" broken wing or a
ship with a mast gone
and half -of its sails
trailed down, there
comes on one a sensa-
tion like no other that
this war produces.

Death, of course, by
every form of violence,
is snatching his mill-
ions, but we must all
die some time; the
waters close quickly
— a little hole, a few
bubbles, a sore heart
or two, and the river
flows on. All the other
miseries, whipped on
by that fell huntsman,
War — starvation, des-
titution, imprison-
ment, anxiety, grief —
if they do not kill you,
they pass. Maiming
abides. The armless,
legless, the blinded, the paralyzed — all
live on into the green years when the
v/ilderness will bloom again and flowers
grow where this storm once withered the

JOHN GALSWORTHY

istence, thousands upon thousands who,
but for the merest chance, might be our-
selves.

Maimed for the duration of the war —
that would be bearable, but maimed for
the duration of life is the sacrifice that
these have made and that we shall have
to watch. And the
grimness of it is that
with each year which
leaves the war fur-
ther behind we shall
watch and feel for
them the less — a hard
saying, but true — and
they will feel the
waste of their powers
the more. And that is
why now is the time
to roll up every pe;my
that we can, to put
a sure foundation
beneath these injured
lives, so that however
much we sag away
from gratitude and
justice in the future —
and sag we shall, as
sure as men are men
— we' shall have guar-
anteed our country
against the crime of
taking the best from
her sons, for her reservation, and leav-
ing them like hulks on the beach of
fortune. *

This war is the nation's war as no war

face of the earth; on into the calm years yet has ever been. Each man maimed

when men will look back and rub their
eyes. It is this which comes down on
the heart, of him who sees the maimed
men go by — this sensation of watching,
from far on in the future when there

in it has lost his limb, his sight, his power
of movement, in service of us all; and
we shall be skunks to fail them. Yet, if
I am not mistaken, such social conditions
and feeling will follow this struggle

shall be not another trace left of that throughout Europe— not at once, but
hurricane, thousands upon thousands within a few years — that everything
stricken out of full life into a half ex- which reminds people of it will come to

904

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

be anathema; no hope then for the
maimed of anything beyond what we have
already secured for them ! It is now that
from ourselves, and from our Govern-
ment, such money must be got, and such
a comprehensive scheme laid out as to
banish all fear of national shame. Pen-
sions are all very well, but nothing is
enough, short of our being able honestly
to say that no man totally disabled in
this war, however long it lasts, is left un-
cared for, and no man partially disabled
left without such opportunity of suitable
and dignified work as shall keep him in
self-respect and a decent economic posi-
tion. That is the minimum of justice,
and less than the minimum of gratitude.

This is a deceptive moment. Labor is
so scarce that the partially disabled
easily find jobs, which peace will soon
take from them. None of us would
now admit that we shall ever forget the
bravery and sacrifices of our soldiers and
sailors, that we shall ever come to turn a
cold shoulder on the maimed among
them. The hot iron never thinks that it
will cool; but cool it always does. Wait
till danger is removed, till social troubles
recommence, till we reap what the war is
sowing! If full provision is not made
while the war lasts it will never be made.
We must put it out of our own power to
betray our best instincts, under the chilly
pressure of a troubled future. The
funds raised and asked for up to now are
as a drop in the jug of ultimate need.

The present moment, I repeat, is dan-
gerous from the vtry fact that our hearts
are warm with gratitude to these suffer-
ers. We look round and see that for the
time being they all are, or can be, pro-
vided for; the demand for the maimed
exceeds, as one might say,, the supply.
But look forward ! Ah ! there's the rub —
we are not good at looking forward ! The

British nose is short, and it would seem
we seldom see beyond it. " Tiens ! une
montagne! " We are always riding up,
and knocking our noses against, moun-
tains that we never dreamed were there!
It is a national habit that may help to
foster a light-hearted tenacity in the
able-bodied, but will hardly assure the
well-being of those who have lost limbs,
or sight, or power of movement for their
country. They have a right to ask that
we do not leave the dark mountain of
their future unobserved until our noses
crash into it.

The other day I was taken over " The
Lord Roberts Memorial Workshops," in
the Fulham Road. This is a queer world
of ours — in those workshops men who
have been through hell and left part of
themselves behind are making toys, and
the toys are remaking them. It seemed
to me the most steadily busy place I
was ever in, and I think the most hope-
ful.

Nothing keeps regret away like work.
They work their fifty hours a week at the
fair wages of the trade — no sweating, no
undercutting; and in the first eight
months they have made a net profit. The
work has already been described much
better and more exactly than I can do it;
I only want to say that it struck me as
the very thing wanted. We could not do
better — it seems to me — than assist " The
Lord Roberts Memorial " Committee to
carry out their scheme of establishing
these workshops all over the country,
with canteens and recreation rooms at-
tached, on such a seals that, however
many of the partially disabled the tides
of this war cast up, not one hereafter,
in the most bitter times of bad trade and
unemployment, may be able to say with
truth : " I want a decent job, and can't get
one."

Rebuilding the Foundations of
International Peace

CONTRIBUTED TO CURRENT HISTORY

By Oscar S. Straus

Member Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague; Former Ambassador to
Turkey; Chairman New York Public Service Commission

WE are in the habit of thinking
and speaking about this war
chiefly in relation to its
colossal magnitude, its un-
speakable horrors, sacrifices, sufferings,
and losses. There is
another aspect of
much deeper signifi-
cance, which is des-
tined to have even a
more lasting effect
upon civilization and
upon the relations of
nations, one to the
other, than these un-
paralleled physical re-
sults, namely, the in-
fluences growing out
of the dominance of
one of the two moral
standards now in
deadly conflict.

This conflict made
itself apparent at the
close of the Middle
Ages and with the
rise of independent
political communities
following the Refor-
mation. In 1513 Mach-
iavelli set forth in " The Prince " the
doctrine that in matters of State ordi-
nary moral rules did not apply, and his
work soon became the political manual
of the rulers of States. There were
many writers and statesmen who took
the opposite view, and, fortunately for
humanity and human progress, this prin-
ciple of lawlessness in international re-
lations was strongly combated by Grotius
in 1625. In his book, " De Jure Belli ac
Pacis," moral ideas which had been in
European thought for a century or more

OSCAR

I Pirie

were therein clearly stated, systematically
arranged, and logically applied to what
should be the regulation of dealings be-
tween States. Following this, inter-
national law was developed and began
more and more to take
the place of the sys-
tem of dominant sov-
ereignty which had
existed in the Middle
Ages. No set of prin-
ciples more clearly
marked the progress
of civilization than the
progress of the sub-
stitution of moral
principles in the rela-
tionship of States for
the so-called right
resting upon the might
of the strongest.
THE REAL ISSUES
Within a period of
a little over six years
—from 1864 to 1870—
Prussia, following the
teachings of the
Machiavellian school,
carried to a successful
issue three* wars of
aggression. Under the dominating ge-
nius of Bismarck she took Schleswig-
Holstein, supplanted Austria in the
leadership of the Teutonic peoples, and
wrested the provinces^ of Alsace and
Lorraine from France. When at Ver-
sailles, in the Hall of Mirrors, King
William received from the hands of the
rulers of Germany the imperial crown,
Prussia's dream of centuries became a
reality. It well may be asked, Has that
vision exercised an influence upon the
causes and brought about the present war

STRAUS
MacDonald

906 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

in the desire of the Prussian militarist to
extend the German dominion over Europe
and the world? The teachings of this
school have been restated by some of
the foremost of the leaders of German
thought; by her national historian,
Treitschke, whose lectures on politics
have had as commanding an influence
upon the ruling powers in Prussia as
Machiavelli had upon the rulers of his
day.

Treitschke holds that every treaty or
promise made by a State is understood
to be limited by the necessities of that
State; that " a State cannot bind its will
for the future over against other States " ;
that international treaties are no abso-
lute limitation but a voluntary self -limita-
tion of the State and only for such time
as the State may find it to be convenient
and consistent with its interests. As
another illustration of his views he de-
clares: "It is ridiculous to advise a
State which is in competition with other
States to start by taking the catechism
into its hands." All of these ideas were
adopted and expanded by Bernhardi, the
faithful disciple of Treitschke, whose
Berlin lectures in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century were listened to and
appear to have had a marked influence
upon the leading officers and officials of
Germany.

The German Chancellor in his speech
to the Reichstag on Aug. 4, 1914,
adopted the doctrine of necessity as a
justification for the invasion of Bel-
gium, notwithstanding the treaty which
guaranteed her neutrality. He said,
" We are now in a state of necessity,
and necessity knows no law. Our
troops have occupied Luxemburg and
perhaps are already on Belgian soil.
Gentlemen, that is contary to the dictates
of international law."

CONFLICTING IDEALS

The German designations for these
two conflicting schools of thought are:
(1) The Realpolitiker, who hold that in
the relation of nations there is no room
for moral considerations; in other words,
that might makes right; and (2) the
Idealpolitiker, who maintain that the
relationship of nations should rest upon
moral principles. The one doctrine is

predicated upon -State absolutism, that
each State is primarily and ultimately
concerned for itself and itself alone, that
its interests are not only paramount to
but 'override even its obligations; that
when in its judgment its necessities
demand, treaties, however specific and
solemnly made, shall not be binding.
The other school maintains that, while
nations are not yet as fully amenable
to moral considerations as the individ-
uals within their boundaries, yet States
in their relations with one another must
observe their international obligations
and recognize the principles of inter-
national law that have been developed in
the progress of civilization.

Sir Edward Grey in refusing to con-
sent to the invasion of Belgium in-
structed the British Ambassador to ask
for his passports, and stated that Great
Britain would feel bound to take every
step in its power to uphold the neutral-
ity of Belgium and the observance of
the treaty to which Germany, as well,
as Great Britain, was a party. The is-
sue thus made brought in direct con-
flict, as no other war in history has ever
done, the two standards of international
morals to which I have referred.
FORMS OF ABSOLUTISM

Underlying the issues just stated is
yet another, and that is the conflict be-
tween absolutism and democracy or con-
stitutionalism. If the doctrine of inter-
national or external absolutism prevails,
then it will necessarily strengthen the
forces of absolutism within the victorious
nations, and to that extent will weaken,
if not obliterate, democracy, and fortify
the Bismarckian policy of "blood and
iron " and the triumphs of militarism,
with all that these changes may signify.

How long nations dedicated to justice
and liberty under constitutionalism can
withstand this spirit of militarism, or,
as Spencer terms it, of rebarbarization,
is a subject which should give us 'in
America great concern.

When President Monroe in 1823 an-
nounced our continental policy it was
predicated upon the fact that America
had a set of interests entirely apart from
those of Europe, and that Europe had in-
terests entirely apart from us. That was

REBUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE 907

true then, but in a far less extent is it
true now, since the application of steam
and electricity to peaceful and warlike
arts. Distance no longer separates nor
protects the nations of one continent or
hemisphere from the other. Armies can
be transported across oceans with greater
rapidity and facility than on land, and
submarines can traverse unseen and
spread havoc over all the seas. We can
no longer rely on our isolation, for we
are no longer isolated in the physical
sense, as we were in 1823, and certainly
not in relation to our commercial inter-
ests. The latter is true of all other
nations. Whether we will or not, we are
a much nearer and a more intimate mem-
ber of the family of nations, and must
take our share of the responsibilities this
more intimate relationship involves.
Should the spirit of the victor nations
after the war be one of international
absolutism, it cannot fail to come in con-
flict with both our international and our
national ideals and principles.

AMERICA'S NEW DUTY

The reconstruction of the world after
this war will be our concern as much as
it will be the concern of the belligerent
nations. But it will be urged that the
Monroe Doctrine forbids us to take part
in European concerns. The answer is:
The framers of our continental policy
learly 100 years ago could not and did
not foresee the veritable miracles that
have transformed, as it were, oceans into
lakes and shortened the distance between
America and Europe from thirty days to
less than five days, and the time of com-
munication to a few seconds. Reading,
as we should, Monroe's Doctrine in the
light of these changed conditions, we find
there a warrant, if not a duty, even in
its language, for our country's participa-
tion in the world's reconstruction.

The language is : " In the wars of the
European powers, in matters relating to
themselves, we have never taken any
, nor does it comport with our policy
to do so. It is only when our rights are
invaded or seriously menaced that we re-
sent injuries or make preparations for
our defense." Is it not clear that if the
doctrine of might should prevail and the

policy of militarism triumph, the power
of defense would be the only protection
that nations would have against one an-
other, and that the Machiavellian doc-
trine of the necessity of States would be
the final arbiter of the rights of States?
If this be true, does it not clearly become
our duty not only primarily in our own
interests, but, secondarily, in the inter-
ests of the world, to insist upon taking
part in re-establishing upon a firmer
basis the safeguards of international law
without which international treaties can
have no value?

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS

In the days of slow wars an interval
separated a state of peace from the
state of war. Nations could more readily
postpone their preparations for war
until the war clouds threatened and
could postpone the raising of armies
until the time approached for using
them, but all this is changed. The pres-
ent war began after an ultimatum of
only a few days, and immediately there-
after the armies of Germany were on
the march through Belgium.

At three different periods during the
last twenty-eight years I saw at close
range at Constantinople the play of the
diplomacy of the great European powers.
With rare exceptions, in important and
vital issues, the diplomacy of the
stronger nations won out and that of
the weaker nations correspondingly
failed.

It is a mistake to believe that armies
and navies lie useless when not engaged
in war. As a matter of fact, armies
and navies are the potential forces be-
hind diplomacy when vital interests are
at stake, and their potentiality is in the
background and is often the controlling
factor in obviating the development of
conditions that lead to war, or that pro-
ject nations into war, even at times
against their own will.

Let us not deceive ourselves by failing
to see that this war has let loose through-
out the world the spirit of conquest, the
hunger for territory, and the rivalry for
domination on land and sea. Even our
efforts to maintain our neutrality, in-
stead of making for us friends, have

G08 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

made us envied, distrusted, and, by some
nations, hated. But, entirely apart from
the menace of foreign attack, if we are
to be an effective influence either now or
hereafter in the promotion of the peace
of the world, the measure of our influ-
ence will certainly not be in proportion
to our weakness, but in proportion to
our available strength. It is said by
some that to enlarge our naval and mili-
tary forces will of 'itself be provocative
of war, in that it will prompt the spirit
of militarism. This is true where arma-
ments are piled up for the sake of
domination or of conquests, but arma-
ments for defense, subordinated, as they
always must be under our form of gov-
ernment, to the civil power are not pro-
moters of militarism, but a bulwark for
law and justice, and for the security of
all those ideals which constitute civiliza-
tion.

ROOTS OF THE PRESENT WAR

A war such as this could never have
engulfed the nations had their interna-
tional relationships and foundations been
rightfully constructed. For many years
past, and especially since the Franco-
Prussian war, historians, statesmen, and
publicists foresaw that a condition of
armed peace, with its ever-increasing
burden of competitive armaments, would
inevitably lead to war unless a recon-
struction could be effected.

Count Benedetti, the French Ambas-
sador at the Court of Berlin at the out-
break of the Franco-Prussian war, in his
" Studies in Diplomacy " distinctly stated
that the alliance of 1879 between Ger-
many and Austria, which became the
Triple Alliance when Italy joined it in
1882, would necessarily be a portent of
war, or, to use his words: " It is in fact
armed peace that the three powers have
organized, and can peace under arms be
lasting? " The Marquis of Salisbury in
1897 made the statement that "The
federation of the European nations is the
germ of the only possible mutual relation
of these States which can protect civiliza-
tion from the frightful effects of war."
The German Chancellor in his speech in
the Reichstag on Aug. 19, 1915, said,
" An unassailable Germany would give us
a new Europe," and then added, "An

England able to dictate its will to the
world is inconsistent with the peace of
the world." He was right in his diagnosis
when applied to his enemy, but wrong
when applied to his own country. His
statement is itself an additional proof
that the dominance of power is not safe
in the hands of any one nation, and can
only be intrusted for the security of each
nation in the hands of the united nations.

THE HAGUE PEACE PLANS

It is quite the vogue now to refer with
ridicule to the two Hague Conferences
and to the efforts made to avert the
catastrophe toward which Europe was so
rapidly drifting. The tendencies were in
two diametrically opposite directions,
which have been graphically described
as Utopia and Hell. If the pacifists,
who animated and encouraged their
Governments to participate in the Peace
Conferences at The Hague in 1899 and
1907, and who looked with hopefulness
upon the results that would follow, have
met with disappointment, certainly they
have not fallen further away from the
realization of their ideals than have the
militarists in the hopeless remoteness of
the results they aimed speedily to
achieve by the war which now engulfs
the world. In other words, the failure of
the militarists has certainly been as de-
cisive and infinitely more appalling than
has been the failure of the peace advo-
cates in achieving their end.

The deduction to be drawn from the
failure of both sides makes it clear that
there must be an international recon-
struction upon an entirely different basis
than that which has brought about the
awful cataclysm of European civiliza-
tion. All the nations that are now ar-
rayed against one another in their death-
dealing trenches want peace, yet each re-
gards with hostility every effort of
neutral nations to bring about peace,
because no one of them is willing to
make concessions which will insure the
peace of justice as distinguished from
the pride and obsession for victory. The
same considerations that apply at the
present time will apply with equal force
and with even more emphasis to the re-
lationship of nations for the maintenance

REBUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE 909

of peace after this war is over. This
world war is a distinct proof that neither
pacifism without might nor might unless
dominated by right can be effectual in
securing a permanent peace.

PAST PEACE PLANS

As we survey the history of nations
we find three distinct methods of world
organization which were developed,
tried, and found wanting. The first of
these was the dominance of nations by
great world powers such as Greece
under Alexander, whose invincible pha-
lanxes dominated Europe, Asia, and
Africa. The disciplined power of Rome
which supplanted that of Greece was
another example. But as Greece was
supplanted by Rome, so Rome in turn
was overthrown by the onrush of the
northern barbarians. Following the
Napoleonic wars there was developed a
second method of keeping the peace —
the system of the Balance of Power and
of the Concert of Europe, under which,
instead of one dominant nation, several
nations united in offensive and defensive
alliances. This plan developed in our
day in a third arrangement, by which it
was hoped that peace and order would
be maintained among the nations through
group alliances; namely, the Triple Al-
liance on the one side and the Triple
Entente on the other. This dual ar-
rangement, dividing Europe into two vast
and powerful camps, it was hoped, would
have the effect which is epitomized in the
expression that " one sv/ord will keep the
other in its scabbard." But this war
proves that it has had a contrary effect;
it has multiplied the swords on both sides,
it has developed militarism as never be-
fore and has piled up those crushing ar-
maments that are today clashing against
one another in the most frightful and
bloody war in all history.

These several methods and plans from
Alexander the Great to William II. each
in turn collapsed with increasing fright-
fulness. They were built upon false
foundations; they were built as strong-
holds for war and not as strongholds for
peace. It follows by the logic of history
that the world must seek other methods
than those which have so woefully failed
to maintain peace. It must be a righteous

peace, for peace, to be lasting, must be
founded on justice and respect for law.

Any future plan, to be lasting, must
take into consideration the two antag-
onistic schools to which I have referred,
and in so doing reconstruct international
relationships, not as heretofore exclusive-
ly on the basis of war, but dominantly on
the basis of peace. This cannot be done
by the dominance of a single power. It
.cannot be done by a division of power.
That also has proved a failure. It must
be done by a unity of power; by placing
the might of the united nations as guar-
dians of the rights of each nation, on the
same principle as we constitute the joint
power of the forty-eight States of our
Union as the guardian of the right of
each State.

RIGHTEOUSNESS NOT ENOUGH

" While righteousness exalteth a na-
tion," the present war gives incontro-
vertible proof that righteousness will
not protect a nation unless all other na-
tions are likewise exalted by righteous-
ness. When that time arrives we shall
have reached the millennium, which
from present indications is sufficiently
remote to justify a search for ways and
means that will serve the purpose of
toe world in the intervening time. It
is a fact, which we would deceive our-
selves in failing to recognize, that funda-
mental changes in the progress of man-
kind have rarely, if ever, been possible
save by war or as a sequel to war. All his-
tory teaches that war will not be banished
until the leading and more powerful na-
tions become civilized enough to create
an organization that will not only in-
duce but will force resort to other means
than war, and that will be able to impose
necessary and fundamental changes with-
out war.

The greatest curse of war is that it
settles international differences by the
force of might and not by the arbitrament
of right, and differences so settled will
continue in the future as in the past to
breed war. National weakness does not
make for peace. On the contrary, as the
world is at present constituted, it invites
a disregard for fundamental right; it
invites aggression and war. Power and
preparedness within limitation have a

910 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

restraining influence and are most help-
ful in leading controversies to settlement
by peaceful negotiations. A nation with-
out power is compelled to submit either
to conquest or to humiliating conditions.
When vital differences arise between
strong and weak nations they are more
likely to lead to war than when they
arise between two strong nations. We
need not look far for examples. The
present war in its origin affords a strik-
ing instance.

A LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Many plans have been devised, but
none in my judgment has laid a better
foundation for international peace than
the one adopted by the League to Enforce
Peace. That plan, briefly stated, con-
sists of three provisions. First, all
justiciable questions shall be subject to
an international court. Second, all ques-
tions that are not subject to judicial
determination shall be submitted to a
council of conciliation for hearing, con-
sideration, and recommendation. Third,
the powers shall use their joint forces,
economic and military, against any one
of their number who goes to war before
submitting its differences as provided in
the foregoing provisions.

Some such plan was recommended by
Sir Edward Grey and proposed by him
to Germany as a safeguard against ag-
gression on the part of the Triple Entente
on July 30, 1914. This proposal was
embodied in a telegram to the British
Ambassador at Berlin. He said: "If
the peace of Europe can be preserved and
the present crisis safely passed, my own
endeavor will be to promote some ar-
rangement to which Germany could be a
party, by which she could be assured
that no aggressive or hostile policy would
be pursued against her or her allies by
France, Russia, and ourselves jointly or
separately. I have desired this and
worked for it as far as I could through
the last Balkan crisis; and Germany
having a corresponding object, our rela-
tions sensibly improved. The idea has
hitherto been too Utopian to form the
subject of definite proposals, but if this
present crisis, so much more acute than
any that Europe has gone through for
generations, be safely passed, I am hope-

ful that the relief and reaction which will
follow may make possible some more defi-
nite rapprochement between the powers
than has been possible hitherto."

Unfortunately this proposal was put
forward only at the eleventh hour, when
misrepresentation, irritation, and suspi-
cion had poisoned the air; all of which
emphasizes the fact that arrangements
for peace must be made in advance not
only of mobilization but of the irritations
which produce war, and that such ar-
rangements must be made with the same
precautions and preparedness as the na-
tions have hitherto given to preparations
for war. In other words, the methods
must be reversed, and instead of interna-
tionalizing war the nations must inter-
nationalize peace.

NEW DAY OR DARKER NIGHT

It is to .be hoped that out of the ex-
treme suffering and sacrifices that this
war imposes there may arise supreme
wisdom among the nations. Either there
will be a new day or a darker night. All
depends upon how this war shall end,
and what bulwarks the nations shall
erect against future cataclysms.

In conclusion, let me repeat, America,
though not a belligerent, is as much con-
cerned in the world's peace as are the
nations at war. We must take a part in
the reconstruction. Norman Angell sig-
nificantly says that if we do" not mix in
European affairs Europe will mix in our
affairs. We owe it to ourselves, to_ hu-
manity, ar.d to the world to lend our best
efforts and make our fullest contribution
to that reconstruction which must come.

Civilization has been undermined. The
temples of the false gods have tumbled
into ruin. This most barbaric and colos-
sal war has not put God, but man, on
trial. It has put existing international
relationships on trial; it has put expedi-
ency and the doctrine of might on trial.
It has revealed the fact that we cannot
have one standard of morals within a
nation and a different and lower standard
as between nations.

All the machinery that has been de-
vised in the past for the maintenance of
peace has been left to volunteer effort.
The resort to treaties of arbitration, to
The Hague Tribunal, to Commissions of

REBUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE 911

Inquiry, was in every case voluntary.
We must use at least as much compelling
force for the preservation of peace as
has heretofore been put forth in prepara-
tions for war. Let us hope that out of
the bloody trenches will arise a new in-
ternational conscience which will put no
geographical limitations upon right and
justice. To unlock the portals of the
future peace and happiness of the nations
we must use other instruments than the
" blood-rusted keys " of the past.

Instead of a General Staff in each na-

tion preparing for war, there should be a
General Staff of the united nations pre-
paring for peace. Bluntchli was perhaps
right in his opinion that the federation of
Europe would be easier to bring about
than was that of the German Empire.
Federation gives cause for hope — hope
that out of the agonies and appalling
sacrifices of this war may arise a higher
sense of international justice and a nobler
humanity under the protecting shield
of the united powers of the united
nations.

Kitchener's Grave

By LILY YOUNG COHEN

In woe's black watch, bereaved, earth weeps,

But the proud sea his body keeps

And calls triumphant to the land

In tones none may understand:

" Though for your fame he choose to fight,

I am the measure of his might!

Ah, never, now, in vaulted gloom

Shall sleep the hero of Khartum;

But in my arms — exalted, fond —

111 lull him in the great beyond,

And so his resting here with me

Will give new meaning to the sea.

No graven tablet may I bear,

Nor in mere words his deeds declare,

But, better yet, from my deep throat

Will ever clang a martial note

To glorify this son of Mars

And keep the memory of his wars.

To children on the beach at play

111 sing the name of K. of K.,

While in the roaring tempest's boom

Will sound the message of Khartum,

And, e'en in calm, on every shore

Of him I'll chant forevermore.

Thus, his unfettered spirit brave

Shall live forever in the wave.

And so, O Land, grudge not that he

Sleeps his last sleep here in the sea! "

Ending Barbarous Warfare

Chemical Inspectors to Prevent the Making of Poison Gas
and Weapons of Frightfulness

By Solomon Reinach

French Essayist and Historian

Solomon Reinach, distinguished mem-
ber of the Institute of France and author
of more than sixty books — including
" Apollo," a general history of art, which
has run through many editions in many
languages — has written an important
paper on " How Peace May Be Pre-
served After the War." He advocates o,
plan that could be executed by the League
to Enforce Peace, of which former Presi-
dent Taft is the head. In discussing the
necessity of practical measures to make
the peace lasting, Professor Reinach
says :

IT would be a dangerous mistake to
believe that any readjustment of
frontiers could afford a sufficient
guarantee for future peace, or that
war indemnities, protective tariffs, and
the like could oblige the peacebreakers to
renounce their schemes. We are no long-
er in 1815, when fortresses were consid-
ered obstacles to aggression, when finan-
cial disabilities involved disarmament.
The treaty which shall put an end to the
present war would do nothing for the in-
terests of mankind if it were like any of
the former ones. Why? Because, the
character of war and warfare having un-
dergone a complete change, the conven-
tions and treaties which put an end to
warfare cannot, in any degree, resemble
those of the past.

At the future congress, among the seats
reserved for the delegates of the great
powers, one seat should remain vacant, as
reserved for the greatest, the most re-
doubtable though youngest of powers —
science in scarlet robes.

That is the new fact; that is what
diplomacy should not ignore, if that im-
minent and execrable scandal is to be
averted — the whole of civilization falling
a victim to science, her dearest daugh-

ter, brought forth and nurtured by her,
now ready to deal her the death blow.

As early as 1870 the great historian
Michelet wrote that machinery would
transform warfare, but that the mechan-
ism of spreading death would soon find a
rival in military chemistry. Michelet
was a prophet. Fortresses are bygone
things. The depths of the sea, the realm
of the clouds, are open to machines which
can work, unseen, any amount of evil.
Military chemistry has only just made its
appearance, but we know that whole re-
gions can be turned into deserts by using
poison gas on a large scale. Wireless
electricity has not yet contrived to ex-
plode factories or destroy distant towns
as by an earthquake; but that is by no
means impossible and may be realized
this very year. An Englishman recently
wrote to The Daily Mail that Germany
should not be allowed to have ports, be-
cause any port might be used by her for
the building of 1,000 submarines, which
could, in the space of a night, without a
declaration of war, destroy the English
and French Navies. But that gentleman
did not realize that there were other
means of wholesale destruction and mur-
der, which might just as well be prepared
in time of peace and used without a
warning — 1,000 armed aeroplanes carry-
ing high explosives; 10,000 tons of poison
gas, and the like.

Any precaution taken against Germany
alone would be futile. Even a small
country, having at its disposal the fright-
ful implements of future warfare and
using them without a scruple, might be-
come a terrible danger to the whole
world.

Let us conclude that, in 1916, if the re-
modeling of frontiers, the financial com-
pensations, &c., still retain their raison

ENDING BARBAROUS WARFARE

913

d'etre, because in conformity with justice,
they can not and should not be considered
as the more essential elements of the fut-
ure settlement. The all-important ques-
tion is the muzzling of the mad dog.

If, in a civilized country, the police hear
of a factory preparing poison, that fac-
tory is at once suppressed and the direc-
tors punished. What is true for a civi-
lized State should be true for the world at
large, for the consensus of States. Such
a consensus exists in the matter of keep-
ing down plague and cholera; the only
thing now necessary and urgent 's to ex-
tend its action to a scourge more fatal
than either cholera or plague, the scourge
of destructive science, because it destroys
the best.

The following means should be adopted
by the future congress of peace :

Every State would pledge itself to re-
nounce the fabrication of submarines,
warplanes, torpedoes, high explosives,
(excepting for industrial purposes,) guns
of more than two inches, poison gas, (ex-
cepting for industrial purposes,) and, in
general, any instrument or contrivance
which the Inspectors, sent out by the
permanent Peace Committee at The
Hague, would consider as adaptable to
purposes of wholesale destruction and
manslaughter.

The Inspectors, (engineers and chem-
ists,) numbering 100, and nominated for
ten years, should continually travel about
the world, have the right to visit any ar-
senal or factory, and, in general, every
place where weapons of war and destruc-
tion could be prepared. They would issue
permits for certain industrial fabrica-
tions and see that they were not used for
improper purposes. Should they discover
the fraudulent beginning of some pro-
hibited manufacture, they would send an
immediate report to The Hague commit-
tee. Orders would be issued for the
speedy destruction of the factory; if dis-
obeyed, the town or country would be
placed under boycott and subjected to a
heavy fine, while an aerial expedition,
starting from The Hague, would destroy
the factory, and, if necessary, the adjoin-
ing town.

As a jfirst result of the congress, all
countries, whether belligerent or not,

should, under penalty of being outlawed,
deliver all the forbidden weapons they
possess. Such weapons, with the ammu-
nition pertaining to them, would be stored
in the great arsenal of the Peace Com-
mittee near The Hague, superfluous ones
being sold as metal for the benefit of
their possessors. The great peace ar-
senal, alone allowed to keep in repair the
prohibited weapons and ammunition,
would be guarded by a body of 5,000
wardens of peace, an international force
mostly selected from the population of
minor countries, such as Switzerland,
Scandinavia, &c. That force would re-
ceive orders from the Peace Committee
alone and only act when the necessity;
should be recognized of suppressing some
unlawful manufacture or preparatives.
Thus the Peace Committee would be in
the same condition as the Chief of Police
in a great town, where possible evildoers,
although much more numerous than po-
licemen, cannot resist them, because they
are either unarmed or lack the perfected
weapons and the big guns. A very small
force, furnished with all the applications
of science to warfare, would easily pre-
serve the peace all over the world. It
need not interfere in semi-civilized
States, which could eventually be con-
trolled by the menace of an international
boycott and blockade.

Renan and Berthelot once dreamed of
a great scientific discovery which would
put in the hands of a well-meaning tyrant
or of a small minority of friends to man-
kind, a terrible instrument of coercion,
thanks to which nothing could be initia-
ted against the welfare of humanity. But
they seem to have overlooked the fact
that such an instrument could become the
property of an enemy of mankind and
enable him to destroy the liberty of the
world. That is what has almost been the
case. The lesson of 1914-16 should not
be lost. The dreams of Renan and Ber-
thelot must be realized, but to the advan-
tage of liberty and justice, not for their
suppression. Humanity must have its
police, and science must supply that po-
lice, and that police only, with sure means
of holding in respect the predatory na-
tions, the international banditti and
world raiders.

The War and German Christianity

By Boy an

Eminent Russian Ptiblicist

THERE weigh upon the soul of
Germany two crimes — one
against humanity, the other
against God. Beginning with
the Kaiser's address to the people from
the balcony of his palace, and ending
with the latest speech of the Chancellor,
all the faculties of the German mind
have been strained toward obliterating
the first of these two crimes. Germany
declares through all of her bugles that
the war on her part was not offensive,
but defensive; not for aggression, but
self -protection; not for murder, but pun-
ishment. But in order to awaken the
beast in man it became necessary for
her to inspire him with rancor and fear.

To the path of crime against human-
ity the Germans were led by their
mighty science and incomparable tech-
nique— by all that which we call ma-
terialistic progress. This progress has
bottled up the old German romanticism
and philosophy as a cork seals ferment-
ing wine. When new instruments for
slaughter were invented it became neces-
sary to put them to test. Thus the tis-
sue of militarism grew up on the bases
of heroic romanticism, atheistic philos-
ophy, and practical Kultur. In this
sense the German crime was, perhaps,
legitimate.

When it appeared that the kettle of
Germanism reached its maximum heat
the steam had to be released, and the
method did not matter. So the Doctor
Fausts and the Knight Lohengrins
turned into vulgar murderers, while the
children of poetical Bavaria and Tyrol
surpassed in cruelty the butchers of
Brandenburg. A victim of a psycho-
pathological and physico-chemical proc-
ess, the nation in whom the valves of
conscience and sane political thought
were hermetically sealed burst open,
overflowing its limitations in a rag-ing,
turbid torrent. It is the task of hu-
manity to restore that stream to its

original limitations, establishing a regime
under which German insanity will pass
away.

Much more complicated and profound
is the second German crime — the crime
before God. Its gigantic shadow has
enveloped Germany, overshadowing all.
the rest; men call it vandalism and bar-
barism. For Germany challenged not
only the political, nationalistic, and eco-
nomic credos of humanity, but also the
religious credo of man. Germany dared
to extend its hegemony even over Chris-
tianity. So long as the guns thunder
this may not be generally recognized,
for the epos of war has absorbed the
ecstasy of piety. But that hour is near
when the truth of God will triumph in
this war as dazzlingly as the truth of
man. The sceptre of Christianity, bent
by German violence, will be straightened
again. * * *

The Germans have invented along with
their howitzer — die grosse Bertha — also
their own god of victory. If the Ger-
mans could but separate their own God
from the God of their opponents, just
as they have excluded German law from
international law, German civilization
from European civilization, German
ethics from French, Russian, English
ethics, then they would naturally do no
injury to the body of Christendom. At
the worst, there would take place some-
thing that has already happened in Ger-
many— a religious reformation. The
modern Luther, Wilhelm, would declare
his modern Christian dogmas, the sub-
jection of the weak to the strong, the
privilege of might over right. Instead
of icons and crosses there would appear
in the temples of the militant Christian-
ity machine guns and shells. Prussian
junkers with blood-stained hands would
serve as pastors.

But Wilhelm is no Luther. Wilhelm
hugs the true 'altar of Peter, the symbol
of love and forgiveness. Wilhelm does

THE WAR AND GERMAN CHRISTIANITY 915

his work not in spite of Christ, but in German orders. And the German min-

His name, for his own glory. Adapting isters, scientists, writers explain that to

his work to the name of Christ, the Ger- vanquish savagery one must use sav-

man Kaiser appointed himself high priest agery; that spilled blood will save that

of the Lord, desecrating the Saviour's which is still unspilled.

name. Before this act, which shocked the The task of humanity is, therefore, to

conscience of the world and turned restore not only the law of man but also

Christianity off its foundations more the law of God. The religious conscience

than the Inquisition or any petty sec- of Germany should not concern us; let

tarianism, even the flames of Nero pale them keep to their own God. But our

into nothingness, God, the God of the oppressed and the

Nero burned Rome for the glory of lowly, we shall not deliver to them for

aesthetics. Wilhelm buYns the world for abuse.

the triumph of Christianity. He declares In this sense the present war is the

himself a medium of God's will, an crusade of the twentieth century. This

emissary of the Lord on this earth. crusade may either bring back under the

As against Christ's meekness he offers wings of Christianity an erring nation

cruelty. The world was once saved by or may lead it entirely to paganism,

redemption. This time it shall be saved For the semi-Christian and semi-pagan

by extermination. "Don't spare the German Kultur, evidently, the end is at

skulls of your enemies," says one of the hand.

America's Gifts to War Sufferers

Mr. Morgenthau, former American Ambassador to Turkey, recently es-
timated the total contribution of the United States to war relief funds at about
$30,000,000. If the work of the Commission for Relief in Belgium is included
the total gifts of Americans to the war sufferers considerably exceed Mr. Mor-
genthau's estimate. The cost of that work alone was $5,000,000 a month. In
addition there is the large work of the Rockefeller Foundation in Serbia and
the American Ambulance in France, which is supported by Americans at a cost
of about $1,000 a day. The Red Cross announced that in nineteen months of
war it had sent abroad supplies valued at $1,093,000.

The totals raised in this country up to the middle of June by some of the
principal relief organizations are as follows:

Belgian Relief Fund $1,106,865

American Jewish -Relief Fund 4,100,004

Committee of Mercy (with other organizations) 939,361

Armenian Fund. 734,418

Polish Fund 386,000

Serbian Relief Committee 279,509

Lafayette Fund 140,000

Fund for Relief of Women and Children of France 190,000

Vacation War Relief Committee 271,000

General German Relief Fund 525,886

To these must be added many special funds and gifts, among the most
important of which is the fund obtained at the Allied Bazaar in New York,
between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000, for the Allies' war relief work.

More than $3,000,000 was appropriated by the War Relief Commission of
the Rockefeller Foundation during the six months ended Jun 30, 1916, the first
half year of the commission's existence. Of this amount more than $2,000,000
already has been expended.

Of the total of $2,159,985 expended during the six months, Belgium was
by far the greatest beneficiary, $1,290,292 having gone for relief in that coun-
try or among Belgians in other countries. Armenian and Syrian relief was
next with $360,000, and Serbian relief third with $148,894. An appropriation
of $1,000,000 for relief work in Poland, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania is yet to
be expended.

Is a Decisive Victory Possible?

View of French Women Pacifists

CURRENT HISTORY presents herewith a translation of a remarkable pamphlet issued last De-
cember by the French section of the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace.
A prominent member of this committee is Mile. Madeleine Holland, sister of Remain Holland,
the famous author. A copy of the original document was sent to each member of the Chamber
of Deputies with an appeal for some action that would make an understanding between the
belligerents humanly possible when the proper time came. The pamphlet was misunderstood
and suppressed, and the homes of several of the signers were searched with the idea that they
had been in communication with German propagandists : but the agitation soon died down, for
it could not be denied that these women were loyally giving their time and strength to their
country's burdens. Their view of the probable outcome of the war is different from the usual
masculine view, and it will be interesting to see how nearly events justify it in the end.

FOR sixteen months the .men of
France have been facing death
and doing their whole duty at the
front. For sixteen months we
women at home have been seeking ours
with anxious hearts. In the first days,
after the natural gestures of despair, our
duty was to regain control of ourselves.
In the presence of the calm and resolute
attitude of those who were leaving, the
fear of being unworthy of them, of weak-
ening them by our tears, gave us
strength. We had to stifle our complaints
under pain of dishonor. And because it
was necessary, without knowing how, we
rose from a state of despair to one of
resignation. The situation called for
more, it called for action — work for the
soldiers, work for the prisoners, care of
the wounded, succor of the refugees, the
orphans, the idle. We did and are still
doing all this, but almost without think-
ing, only too eager to give a little to
those who are giving themselves entirely;
yet in doing it we are conscious that all
this is nothing, and that in the face of
such events these poor acts are not
enough. And so, little by little, we have
let ourselves be carried beyond these
daily duties by the vision of our- nation
in arms, fighting for its independence.
Far from the struggle, we desire, at any
cost, to remain faithful to our living and
to our dead.

Does our duty end with charitable ac-
tivity and hero worship? Do we no
longer have to think, judge? Can it be
our duty to submit to ivar with docility
as to an ordeal all in the course of
nature?

In order to be able to reply from our
peaceful homes, let us make the painful
effort of at last looking at war face to
face. In one year more than 5,000,000
deaths, 5,000,000 alone in their agony!
Among these corpses, more than 600,000
of our own! Twice as many wounded,
ill, infirm, without counting the prison-
ers! Throughout our own Northern
France, Belgium, Galicia, Poland, the
Balkans, cities and villages in ashes, the
country devastated ; countries larger than
the whole of France put to fire and
sword, millions of inhabitants led into
captivity or driven from their homes;
the whole population of Poland wander-
ing on the highways, dying of cold and
hunger; the massacres of Armenians by
the Turks, the massacres of Belgians and
Serbs by the Germans and Austrians, the
massacres of Jews and Galicians by the
Russians; every nation of Europe deci-
mated, ruined!

And even that is not the worst. For
these dead, these millions of dead, are
not the rank and file of each nation. As
though war chose its victims, those it has
killed and is killing every day are the
best of us, are those who have led the
way and risked themselves without cal-
culation ; the artisans and the elite, those
who were the centre of life, initiative and
hope in each city, each occupation.

Must we consider the other phase of
this waste? The entire sap and wealth
of France is ebbing with the blood of the
French. How many good workmen are
already lost to their work? The labor of
the past, the precious reserve of the
country, is being destroyed by each hour

IS A DECISIVE VICTORY POSSIBLE?

917

of war. At present France is spending
about one hundred million francs a day,
or about three billions a month; that is
to say, in six weeks the expenditure ex-
ceeds that of an entire year of peace.
It can also be said that in fifty days
France spends the amount of the in-
demnity Germany imposed upon her in
1871 — five billions. Five billions every
fifty days!

Such is this war whose benefits have
been sung to us. Let us note to begin
with that it differs from all other wars.
It is no longer a brilliant and rapid war
in which, after several manoeuvres and
brilliant victories, one of the adversaries
has confessed himself vanquished; it is
an incessant and obscure war, a war in
the trenches, a war of inaction where
each of the adversaries, clinging to the
earth, devotes himself to defending it
foot by foot, determined to fall on the
spot rather than really draw back; and
when they do withdraw it is to renew
indefatigably the same superhuman
effort a few paces further back.

A heroic and implacable war such as
this has no example in history. Yet our
ideas lag behind, fixing themselves on
events, and we persist in repeating the
phrases of former times : " Decisive ac-
tion, crushing defeat, rout, victory," when
these words are visibly inappropriate.

What is the reason for this sudden
transformation? It is that up to the
present the immense mass of citizens re-
mained far from war and that the en-
counter of several armies decided the
outcome. For the first time in the his-
tory of the world entire nations have
risen and been hurled at each other;
more than twenty million men, young
and old, are facing each other.

Nations which for a year have given
their daily consent to such a sacrifice
all believe in the justice and the sacred-
ness of their cause. And so from all
sides one hears the same phrases: de-
fense of the fatherland, liberation of the
oppressed, conquest of a permanent
peace. Whatever may be the crime of
certain Governments, it is a painful but
highly important fact that everywhere
the soldiers believe they are fighting for
the very existence of their countries.

That is what explains the fact that every
army, even the most discredited, is fight-
ing with unprecedented heroism, with
such heroism that the staffs on all sides
are obliged to render homage to the
courage of their adversaries. It is will-
ful blindness and lack of loyalty to deny
that mutual esteem in which the brave
of each camp hold one another.

Such is this war, unique in history be-
cause for the first time every country
has given itself, heart and soul. In such
a war, where entire peoples struggle for
life, the massacres are going on in the
same positions and always without re-
sults. History offers no exampte of this
almost perfect equality in the armies, of
this expenditure of strength ending in
powerlessness. Even in the Orient, where
there have been and may still be great
advances and retreats, the assailant has
in vain imagined that he had gained a
real victory. The capture of Warsaw,
according to the Germans, was to be the
beginning of the Russian downfall and
was to mark the end of the war on that
front. Instead, they have for many
months marched beyond their promised
land, and the' fight is going on without
any change. Tomorrow, a prey to the
same mirage, enemies and allies are go-
ing to penetrate toward the Orient.
Imagination is for a time going to place
the allurement of final victory at Con-
stantinople. For sixteen months the goal
has receded at the moment it seemed to
be reached. The invaded people still re-
fuse with increasing energy to admit
themselves conquered. Perhaps men will
end by understanding that a people can-
not be mastered like an individual, and
that no force on earth can triumph over
a great nation resolved not to yield.

Every nation can and should resist
force indefinitely. No nation can hence-
forth win by force. If we still under-
stand victory to mean reducing the enemy
to powerlessness, then in a war of all the
nations we must say without hesitancy
that victory, like defeat, has become im-
possible. No nation can conquer, but
neither can any nation be conquered.
And if by victory we mean " holding out,"
we must say that after a year of war all
the nations are victorious and all seem

918

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

invincible. Then instead of living in
anguished waiting for the morrow, let all
our people, freeing themselves of anxiety
as of all vain ambition, understand that
during the last year they have won
an immense victory by that im-
provised but unshakable resistance which
will be the wonder of the future.
On the other hand has not the hour come
to recognize that this war, which resem-
bles no other war, cannot end like former
wars ? Must we endure months more of
agony in order to comprehend that this
present war, both by the courage of the
combatants and the perfection of the
machinery, is destined to remain a war
without results?

It may seem hard to renounce the
enthusiastic hope of the first months,
and difficult to admit that superhuman
sacrifices have only served to save the
fatherland without transforming the
future. But, has such a transformation
ever been possible by means of war?
Should we not turn elsewhere for this
just hope? For a year people have re-
peated everywhere and in all the fighting
countries that the war is at least going
to renew the face of the world, that it
is going to liberate us suddenly from all
oppression, all enemies, all war, but that
in order to bear such fruit it must be
pursued to the bitter end. Instead of
obstinately repeating that obscure
formula, should we not sincerely ask our-
selves what inestimable good could re-
sult for us from an indefinitely prolonged
war?

Will what we gain at the end be " con-
quests " ? No one in France has seri-
ously thought of such a thing. Neither
from the point of view of justice nor of
utility could any one in this country dare
openly to uphold such wild pretensions
in the face of France and Europe.

Is the crushing of Germany and Aus-
tria what is intended as the outcome of
this war? What does that mean? If it
means the annihilation of 100,000,000
human beings it is not even worth re-
futing.

Is it merely the political dismember-
ment of the Central Powers? Then we
should need to be told by what processes
any one can expect to impose such changes

on a people, and, even supposing they
were imposed, by what processes any one
can expect to force a serious acceptance
of the new regime, when all history
proves the impossibility of maintaining
a Government established by force.

Is it merely the exhaustion of the
enemy that is desired? Do we want to
reduce him to the last limits of poverty
through a war of several years? But
do we not then risk condemning our-
selves to a like condition? And can we,
moreover, foresee how far the resis-
tance of a great modern nation whose
existence is threatened can go? Facts
all tend to prove that, in spite of daily
expenses, the difficulty of getting pro-
visions, and the daily loss of life, a great
nation, determined to make any sacri-
fices, can, by limiting its consumption
and by calling new classes each year,
dispose of practically inexhaustible re-
serves.

The partisans of a war to the death
have long since given up the idea of
crushing the enemy. What they are
promising us now is the liberation of all
oppressed peoples and the establishment
of permanent peace by means of this
war.

The liberation of oppressed nations?
We are evidently forgetting that very
diverse powers, Russia, for example,
besides Prussia and Austria, share the
honor of holding them under their
sceptres. For a certain number of them
it would seem as though a democratic
transformation of Europe, of which they
are a part, would be more to be desired
than a sudden secession. For others, on
the contrary, the only legitimate solution
would be complete autonomy. But from
whatever side we view the question, the
claims of these different nations suggest
problems so complex that they can be
solved only in time of peace, and that
only great congresses can handle them.
Besides, it goes without saying that
neither annexation nor transfer of terri-
tory can rightly be sought contrary to
the wishes of the population.

Permanent peace ? Do we sincerely be-
lieve that we can win it and suddenly
assure it by force of arms ? Do we really
believe that we can destroy the mili-

IS A DECISIVE VICTORY POSSIBLE?

919

tarism of Prussia and other countries by
means of war, as a village is destroyed?
Do we flatter ourselves that we can bring
about a reduction of armaments in Eu-
rope one of these days by dint of can-
nonading? Can we not see that future
peace, whether lasting or uncertain, de-
pends much less upon battles than upon
the wisdom of Governments and the con-
stant will and determination for reform
of each nation? Do we not see that all
real progress must come about within
each nation, and through it, never from
without ? Do we not see that the ruinous
forces of war have merely increased with
the months, and will be as formidable in
Europe as ever ?

There remains a last hypothesis — the
war must be carried to the bitter end for
economic reasons. We need to deprive
the enemy of all power to compete with
us. At any cost we need to ruin the
commerce and industry of Germany, and
not stop, this time, half way.

But can we confound war and indus-
try? In reality no military victory can
assure the economic superiority of one
country over another, for that superiority
depends amost exclusively upon the ac-
tivity and skill which the citizens of the
two countries display in the exercise of
their trades. Likewise, no military de-
feat will prevent 100,000,000 ingenious
and persevering men from working as in
the past, from producing and selling
their products cheaply, and from export-
ing them.

Is the idea of growing rich through
war more acceptable? It is not a ques-
tion of growing rich during the war. We
all know what each day costs. We are
trying, on the contrary, to forget those
streams of billions exhausted in a few
weeks, by repeating to ourselves that
Germany and Austria will some day bear
the burden of these expenses. And so
the idea of a formidable war indemnity
imposed upon the enemy is one of the
most popular of all the ends attributed to
war. That .is as true in Germany as
here. We should, before all, then esti-
mate the total expense, the burden of
which we are to place on the enemy. Our
share, counting the expenses and losses
borne by France, Belgium, England,

Italy, Russia, and Serbia, in fifteen
months of war, has already amounted to a
sum not far from 100,000,000,000 francs.
Even supposing a country could pay such
a sum, it is evident that in order to force
it to do so it would be necessary to have
inflicted upon it a defeat such as a people
has never known even through a Na-
poleon or a Caesar. And after such a
crushing defeat with its accompanying
entrance into Berlin, it would be neces-
sary to maintain this all powerfulness,
and to continue this protectorship for
the thirty, forty, or fifty years during
which the! payments would be made. To
prolong the war for material gain, by
refusing to resign ourselves to the losses
already suffered, is to prepare the way
for new losses.

Such is this war — a war without any
probable military issue, a war sterile for
the future. At the beginning of this
pamphlet we asked ourselves whether it
was our duty to submit to it as to a na-
tural ordeal, such as fate brings and takes
away. In replying in the affirmative
would we not be admitting our weakness
and cowardice? War is made by men,
they remain the masters of war. It will
last as long as they wish. It would seem
as though the noncombatants had only
one peril to guard against: that of yield-
ing before the hour. This is a real peril,
but there is another — besides the crime
of a premature peace there is that of a
uselessly prolonged war. Is speaking of
a war without results, then, the equiva-
lent of speaking of a peace without con-
ditions? Who does not see the differ-
ence and even the contradiction of the
two formulas? Though there seems to
be no chance for the war to end in any
decisive action, it is both a necessity and
a sacred duty for a people like ours never
to yield to the force of the enemy, never
to accept unjust conditions which might
be offered to us. Whatever happens,
a peace which directly or indirectly
jeopardizes the political and economic in-
dependence of France and Belgium must
be refused, for one people cannot be al-
lowed to submit itself to the will of an-
other people.

We do not, as in a fit of criminal folly,
ask our country to sue for peace. But

920 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

we do not believe that the hour for end-
ing the war has been written in advance
in the book of destiny. Peace will not
come by itself. It must not be waited
for as for a miracle; it must be prepared
like a work of man which will be what
the efforts of all make it.

If all the nations are bent upon mas-
sacre, it is because they are separated
by a tragic misunderstanding. Each side
is sure that the other wants to humiliate
it, ruin it, wipe it out. What proof has
it? Noisy and fanatical manifestations,
rumors, legends, race tendencies or his-
torical traditions. It is because these
fears feed upon themselves that they
grow constantly and endlessly. And yet,
will not peace sooner or later assume the
form of an understanding between the
two powerful groups of nations which
cannot dream of such a thing as sup-
pressing each other? Does it not pre-
suppose some understanding preceded
by some truce ? It is difficult to conceive

how the States at war can ever treat if
they make it a point of honor to declare
themselves unwilling to treat.

Does it not seem as though we women,
who are distractedly seeking our real
duty, had a part to play at the present
time ? The combatants in spite of hard-
ships, of which they alone know the full
weight, deny themselves any words or
thoughts which would distract them from
the bloody work to which they are bound.
They are fighting in silence. Yet at
times, almost timidly, they turn to us.
They ask us whether the war is progress-
ing and whether' peace is near. While
they are watching over us, face to face
with the enemy, they are hoping that we,
too, are watching over them. Can we
tell them that we take no interest in the
future, that the war will end when it
can? Would not their ardor be greater
if they were sure that we would not leave
them at their heroic mission one hour
more than is necessary?

753 French Communes Devastated

A total of 753 communes or townships have been partially or totally
destroyed through military operations in France since the beginning of the war,
according to statistics gathered by the Ministry of the Interior and published
July 1. These communes are distributed over eleven of the departments of
France, including those in Ardennes still occupied wholly by the Germans, who
are in possession of 2,554 towns of the total of 36,247 in all France, or 7 per
cent.

Houses to the number of 16,669 have been destroyed and 29,594 partially
destroyed in these communes. In 148 communes the proportion of houses de-
stroyed exceeds 50 per cent., while it is 80 per cent, in 74 towns and less than
50 per cent, in the remainder.

Public buildings destroyed in 428 communes were 331 churchs, 379 schools,
221 town halls, 300 other public buildings of various sorts, and 60 bridges. Of
these buildings 56 had been classed as historic monuments, including the Town
Hall of Arras and the cathedral and Town Hall of Rheims. Three hundred and
thirty factories which supported 57,000 persons were destroyed.

The German War Profit Tax

[A SEMI-OFFICIAL EXPLANATION OF THE PRESENT LAW]
By Dr. Paul Marcuse

GERMANY passed a law on Dec.
24, 1915, which is usually called
the war profit tax law, and
which the press of other coun-
tries declares to be almost equal to con-
fiscation. Of course, every war requires
an increase of taxation, and even a vic-
torious nation cannot expect to unload
all losses and burdens caused by the war
on the enemy. Besides this, the law does
not impose any new taxes, but is
preparative and only a logical contin-
uance of a taxation started by Germany
some years ago.

The war tax law of 1913 (Wehr-
beitragsgesetz) was a tax imposed once
on the income and the property of all
individuals and on the surplus accumu-
lated by all corporations. Individuals^
only (excluding corporations) were fur-
ther subjected to a tax collected every
three years on their increase of property
(Besitzsteuergesetz.) Thus corporations
were only slightly affected by these
taxes, although it may be admitted that
a taxation of both corporations and their
shareholders would have been a double
taxation of the income gained by cor-
porations.

The tax imposed on the increase of
property of individuals will be due for
the first time in April, 1917; so that at
this time mainly the increase of property
gained by individuals during the war
would be subject to taxation.

Not to tax the profits gained by the
large corporations would have been not'
only -unfair, but would have meant that
stockholders having spent this increase
would be exempt from taxation while
only economizing individuals would suffer
a penalty by paying the tax alone.
Therefore the war tax law undertakes to
tax the profits of corporations gained in
excess of their average profits in time of
peace.

How high the tax will be is still unde-
cided and will greatly depend on the need

of funds; that the tax naturally will be
higher than the taxes levied heretofore
goes without saying.

So it seemed necessary to prevent cor-
porations from dividing their rich divi-
dends between their stockholders at the
present time and leaving low bank ac-
counts after the end of the war. The law
therefore proposes to exclude from divid-
ing as dividend 50 per cent, of such ex-
cess profits.

The details of the law are as follows:

1. Subject to the law are all stock corpora-
tions (Actiengesellschaften, Commanditgsell-
schaften auf Actien) with limited liabilities
(G. m. b. H.) building and loan associations
(Genossenschaften), mining corporations.

2. Excess profit is the profit of three con-
secutive business years, the first of which
includes August, 1914, over and above the
average peace profit. Average peace profit
in the sense of the law is the average of three
of the five preceding business years, leaving
out the best and the poorest year. For in-
stance, corporations whose business year is
the calendar year will have to compare the
profits of 1914-1917 with the average profits
of the years 1909-1913. In the case of cor-
porations organized less than eight years ago
the average peace profit is estimated at 5
per cent, of their capital.

3. Profit in the sense of the law is the
profit as shown by the balance, subject, how-
ever, to the following: Business men and
corporations always thought it good policy
to protect themselves against any drawbacks
by creating strong reserves in their assets,
which therefore contain real profits. These
reserves, which are in fact undivided profits,
have always been treated by our tax laws as
profits and were subject to the income tax.
The new law also considers such undivided
profits as profits which are to be added to
the profit shown in the balance sheet.

4. Fifty per cent, of such excess profits is
to be held as a special reserve (Sonderre-
serve), and is to be invested in domestic
bonds. This reserve is indivisible and may
not be touched by the corporations, not even
to be used for paying debts. In case of a
corporation already having declared its
profits for 1914, any sum voluntarily placed
on a surplus account has to be transferred
as a special reserve and invested accordingly, -
while corporations without such voluntary
reserve will be required to hold in reserve an
amount equal to the excess profit of two

922 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

years. In case of decrease in gain during
the two and three years the special reserve
may be reduced proportionately.

5. Branches of foreign corporations are sub-
ject to the law only as far as their profits
derived from their German branch exceed
their average peace profits. Excess profits

and average peace profits in this sense are
identical with the profit on which a State
income tax levies the taxes.

6. The balance sheet must be filed with the
State Government ; in Prussia most likely
with the tax board (Eirikommensteuer-
Veranlagungs-Kommission).

New Austrian Income Taxes

HEAVY new income taxes have been
imposed in Austria as a result of
the war. They apply both to do-
mestic and foreign corporations and to
private individuals.

Domestic corporations will pay 10 per
cent, tax on that part of their increased
income that does not exceed 5 per cent,
of the invested capital, 15 per cent, for
increased income in excess of 5 per cent,
but not over 10 per cent, of invested cap-
ital, and 5 per cent, more for each 5 per
cent, of invested capital until the tax
reaches 35 per cent.

Foreign corporations pay on their in-
creased income as follows: $40,600, 20
per cent.; $40,600 to $81,200, 25 per
cent.; $81,200 to $142,100, 30 per cent;
$142,100 to $203,000, 35 per cent., and
above $203,000, 40 per cent.

No war tax is imposed should the in-

creased income not be in excess of $2,300
per year. This applies to domestic as
well as foreign businesses.

Personal incomes increased in 1914,
1915, and 1916 over the previous five
years' average are to pay the new war
tax as follows:

For an increase of $2,030, or part
thereof, (exceeding $609,) 5 per cent.;
for each addititonal increase of $2,030, or
part thereof, 10 per cent.; for each addi-
tional increase of $4,060, or part thereof,
15 per cent.; for each additional increase
of $4,060, or part thereof, 20 per cent.;
for each additional increase of $4,060, or
part thereof, 25 per cent.; for each addi-
tional increase of $4,060, or part thereof,
30 per cent.; for each additional increase
of $40,600, or part thereof, 35 per cent.;
for each additional increase of $40.600, or
part thereof, 40 per cent.; for the amount
of increase above $101,500, 45 per cent..

On the Rocks a Fourth Time

Professor Collins of Christiania University ivrites in the Tidens Tegn:

Four times in the course of four centuries has a single European State
been so powerful and so ambitious that it has sought to win the overlordship
of Europe, and thereby of the world: The Spain of Philip II., the France of
Louis XIV., the France of Napoleon I., and now, at last, Germany. Four times
have less powerful military States formed a great coalition to avert a new
Roman Empire, built upon conquest.

The dream of universal monarchy, inherited from the Romans, has three
times suffered shipwreck, and is presumably on the point of running on the
rocks a fourth time. And this time may not improbably prove to be the last.
In that case it is a new era of which we are witnessing the unspeakable birth-
pangs.

England has in every case acted in its own well-considered interest, but
at the same time, whether purposely or not, in the interest of the whole
European family. To the advantage of all, no less than to their own, the British
have kept the way open toward a far higher form of world State than any
universal monarchy.

The Allies' Economic Conference

Plans for "War After War"

ONE of the chief events growing out
of the war has been the Economic
Conference of the Entente Allies,
which sat in Paris on the four
days June 14 to 17, 1916. Eight Govern-
ments were represented — France, Bel-
gium, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Por-
tugal, Russia, and Serbia. The confer-
ence had a twofold object: First, to
consider the tightening of the blockade of
the Central Powers and carrying as far
as possible the present scheme of eco-
nomic strangulation; second, to lay the
foundations of an economic union which
will foil German plans of commercial
penetration after the war. The decisions
reached by the conference are not bind-
ing upon the different countries, but
form the basis on which each country is
now expected to frame legislation, nego-
tiate commercial treaties, and generally
mold its economic policy.

The great difficulty which lies in the
way of the realization of the aims of the
conference is the British policy of free
trade. As was explained in a special
article, " Is England Going to Abandon
Free Trade? " published in CURRENT
HISTORY, April, 1916, the high tariff
advocates have revived their agitation
and are demanding immediate considera-
tion of a new tariff policy. In the choice
of delegates to the conference they scored
a point. Mr. Runciman, President of the
Board of Trade and a very strong free
trader, was unable to go to Paris, and
his place was taken by the Marquess of
Crewe, whose free-trade views are less
pronounced, while the delegation included.
Bonar Law, the Colonial Secretary and
leader of the higher tariff party, and
William Morria Hughes, the Prime Min-
ister of Australia. Mr. Hughes, indeed,
was the most conspicuous figure at the
conference. Not only did he come from
a far distant country as the representa-
tive of a workingmen's Government, but
during his visit to the Old World he
carried on a vigorous and unexpected

campaign in favor of an economic
counteroffensive against Germany, thus
becoming for the time being the leader
of one side in the great controversy
between the rival schools of English
fiscal policy.

ADDRESS BY BRIAND
The conference sat in private, but, in
addition to the resolutions printed at the
end of this article, a good deal of light
has been thrown on the ideas of the
Allies by speeches and statements by
leading statesmen. For example, Aristide
Briand, the French Prime Minister, when
welcoming the delegates on the first day
of the conference, delivered an address
in the course of which he said:

To conquer is not enough. In addition
to a military union which will assure our
military success, and to a diplomatic union
which will be formed for future reciprocal
penetration and pooling of common inter-
ests, we have an economic union, which will
guarantee, through fruitful harmony, the
intensive development of our material re-
sources, the exchange of allied products, and
their distribution throughout the world's
markets. * * *

The war has shown us the extent of eco-
nomic slavery to which we were to be made
subject. We must realize that the danger
was great and that our adversaries were on
the eve of success. Then came the war.
The war, with its immense sacrifices which
it demands, will not have been in vain it"
it brings about an economic liberation of
the world and restores sane commercial
methods. We are all determined to shake
off the yoke which was being forced upon
us and to resume our commercial inde-
pendence in order freely to join it to that of
our allies. * * * If it is proved that old
mistakes nearly enabled our enemies to ex-
ert an irremediable tyranny over the
world's productive forces you will resolutely
abandon them, and tread new paths. * * *

But your gaze will also be turned to the
grave duties which will be placed upon the
allied Governments when the time comes
to proceed with the commercial, industrial,
and maritime restoration of our various
countries. Several of these countries have
gone through a period of enemy occupation
which has respected neither natural re-
sources nor accumulated stocks nor factory
equipment. The great work of restoration

924 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

which demands the effort of all the Allies
will without doubt call for special meas-
ures of recuperation at the expense of the
vanquished foe, measures of defense and
protection during the period of making good
the damage done, also measures of col-
laboration for the mutual utilization of the
natural resources of the Allies.

Finally, there will open up a future which
we can regard with justified confidence, a
future for which a permanent system of our
economic relations must be prepared. Thus,
after having organized the necessary de-
fense against a common danger, we must
consider the conditions of the practical util-
ization of our internal economic alliance.

MARKS A NEW ERA

Baron de Broqueville, the Belgian
Premier and War Minister, speaking at
the conclusion of the conference, declared
that its aim had been absolutely
achieved. " The close co-operation, of
which we have formulated the basis," he
added, " marks in the material domain,
as in the moral, the opening of a new
era. Some have tried to force the ad-
mission that we have been preparing for
peace with a war grouping. For de-
fense— yes; for war — no. What is being
organized today is a protective union
against war. To France, who conceived
the first idea of this conference, we pay
the full tribute of our admiration."

The document containing the resolu-
tions was signed by the principal repre-
sentatives of the allied nations in the
following order:

FRANCE

M. Clementel, President of the conference,
Minister of Commerce and Industry.

M. Gaston Doumergue, Minister of the
Colonies..

M. Sembat, Minister of Public Works.

M. A. Metin, Minister of Labor and Social
Insurance.

M. J. Thierry, Under Secretary for War.

M. L. Nail, Under Secretary for Marine.
BELGIUM

Count de Broqueville, Premier and War
Minister.

Baron Beyens, Foreign Minister.
M. Van de Vyvere, Finance Minister.
Count Goblet d'Alviella, Minister of State.
GREAT BRITAIN

Marquess of Crewe, Lord President of the
Council.

Mr. A. Bonar Law, Colonial Secretary.

Mr. W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of Aus-
tralia.

Sir George Foster, Minister of Commerce
of Canada.

ITALY

Signer Tittoni, Ambassador to France.
Signer Daneo, Finance Minister.

JAPAN
Baron Sakatani, formerly Finance Minister.

PORTUGAL

Senhor Affonso Costa, Finance Minister.
Senhor Augusto Scares, Foreign Minister.

RUSSIA

M. Pokrowski, Controller of the Empire.
M. Prilejaieff, Secretary to the Imperial
Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

SERBIA
M. Marinkovitch, Minister of Commer,ce.

CLEMENTEL'S ANALYSIS

When the text of the resolutions was
made public, M. Clementel issued an im-
portant statement, in the course of which
he said:

The measures" unanimously adopted by the
conference of the allied Governments mean
much more than just the desire for economic
expansion. We are going to conduct this
economic struggle in French fashion by or-
ganizing the labor of the peoples according
to their genius, not, in German fashion, to
enslave them. Our enemies are continuing
to forge weapons of oppression. The dye
trust has just grouped with the Badische
anilin factories worth more than $200,000,-
000. Their avowed object is to maintain
after the war the supremacy thanks to
which Germany was furnishing 87 per cent,
of the world's consumption of dyestuffs.

Dumping is the favorite German weapon.
But that is not all, for now the German ef-
fort is commencing to get control of primary
products, especially certain metals. Against
all these measures the Paris conference has
made its plans. The economic superiority of
the Allies is obvious. To assure it there has
not been for one moment any question of
adopting a uniform customs policy. Each
ally remains absolutely independent. Each
product will be the subject of separate nego-
tiation between the States interested in it.
Such combinations will be infinitely varied.

Another principle of the allied Govern-
ments in this war of legitimate economic de-
fense is to attack no one. The neutral coun-
tries have nothing to fear. We are at work
to set them free.

The manner in which the Central Empires
have conducted the war has been shown by
immense economic destruction. Not only
have they systematically destroyed all the
factories which were within range of their
shells, but, further, in the invaded regions
which they are administering, their work
has been the work of destruction. The
plants which produced the necessities of war
have had to work at high tension to supply
Germany's needs. Those which manufact-
ured commodities which could compete with

THE ALLIES' ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

925

German industry have been completely
plundered. Not only have the raw materials
been taken away, but the machines have
been dismantled and sent to Germany. In
other factories nothing remains of the
means of transmitting power, while the
copper has been in great part taken away.
Finally, the raw material in stock has
found its way into Germany.

The Central Empires will have to give
back what they have taken.

Every one knows how the eleventh article
of the Treaty of Frankfurt (of 1871, by
which Germany and France agreed to main-
tain in perpetuity the principle of most-
favored-nation treatment as the basis of
their commercial relations) has been in the
hands of the Germans a powerful economic
weapon. That clause cannot be reaffirmed.
Again, the free handling of raw materials
is an essential factor in the economic power
of a nation. The Allies are today deter-
mined no more to leave these essentials to
others.

The Allies have undertaken to submit, dur-
ing a period which will be decided by them,
merchandise of enemy origin to prohibitory
or other special regulations which will enable
them to oppose efficaciously every attempt at
dumping. This understanding is all the more
necessary now that Germany has built up in
her territories considerable stocks of goods
which have largely been made of material
from the invaded regions.

The Allies will make arrangements to
draw upon one another for everything which
is required for their industries. They will
thus considerably reduce the purchases they
formerly made in the enemy countries. To
take advantage of their natural resources
they will help one another as much as pos-
sible in regard to finance, scientific and
technical research, and improvements in
transportation.

These plans taken in their entirety consti-
tute a complete program of economic action,
the realization of which the Allies are going
to undertake without delay.

POLICY DEFINED BY HUGHES
Mr. Hughes, the Australian Prime
Minister, speaking at the meeting of the
British Empire Producers' Association
in London on June 21, was very out-
spoken as to the forces which are said to
be opposed to a policy of economic war-
fare against Germany. These were some
of his chief points:

There are still people in Britain today who,
for one reason or another, stand more or
less openly for a reversion after the war to
things as they were before the war. They
want to renew what they euphemistically
term " our friendly relations with Ger-
many " after the war. Many of these men
are agents of Germany, now during the war
they are caretakers of Germany's interests

in Britain. Naturally, the German economic
domination of the world would have been
impossible had her organigation not included
many of the influential citizens of the coun-
try upon whose vitals she was feeding, who
acted, though in many cases they did not
perhaps realize the fact, as the instruments,
the tools of Germany.

They view with the utmost apprehension
the suggestion that Britain should organize
her industries and thus slam the door upon
their hopes. Of course, they are very care-
ful to cloak their real motives under a cloud
of high-sounding words. I do not for a mo-
ment include all those who oppose the com-
ing change— for it is coming— among those
persons. Many are slaves to mere doctrine;
others are the dupes of designing and inter-
ested persons. We have to deal with all
these, but the only opposition we need fear
is that whose roots are imbedded in Ger-
man gold. We have not only to fight the
Germans in Germany, but the agents of Ger-
many in Britain.

How and where are we to begin? I think
at the resolutions of the Paris Conference.
Their adoption by the allied powers will ef-
fect little short of an economic revolution.
I believe that through them we can strike
a blow right at the heart of Germany. I
believe that, rightly used, they are a great
charter guaranteeing us and the allied na-
tions, and, indeed, the civilized world, eco-
nomic independence. It would be intolerable
if, after we had sacrificed millions of lives
and thousands of millions of treasure in
order to prevent Germany imposing her po-
litical will upon us, we should slip back into
her economic maw.

You know that the Central Powers have
recently entered into a very close economic
alliance, and Germany is using all its genius
for organization to make it effective. At
the close of the war we shall have to face
not only the Germany of 70,000,000 that we
knew, and whose power we felt, but the
united forces of the Central Empires, with
a population of 120,000,000. Then the neutral
nations, growing rich while we grow daily
poorer, are making great preparations to
capture the world's markets and oust us
from our position.

The material basis of every industry is its
raw material. Without this industry is help-
less. The Paris Conference sets out the po-
sition in one of its resolutions. Common-
sense and our own bitter experiences have
made us realize how vital to national safety
and welfare the raw materials of our basic
industries are. We have seen what the con-
trol of dyes, tungsten, spelter, . and other
metals by Germany means to this nation. It
is profoundly true that if one great power
controlled practically all the supplies of such
things as copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, petrol,
rubber, and cotton, all the world would be
suppliant at its feet. We do not want to con-
trol the world's supplies of raw materials,

926 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

but we must control enough for our own
national and economic purposes.

Let us realize that Germany is a great
nation, that she will never yield until she is
decisively beaten on the field of battle, that
as she realizes that with defeat her cher-
ished dreams of world empire must be for
ever shattered and in their place' come a
horrid reality of economic chaos, of revolu-
tion, in which dynasties shall topple to their
fall, she will fight to the end on the field
of battle and on that of trade with all the
tremendous power springing from perfect
national organization. Nothing short of a
resolution as determined as her own, an or-
ganization as complete as hers, will enable
us to conquer on both fields.

Before his departure for Australia, by
way of South Africa, Mr. Hughes com-
pleted with the British Government a
plan for marketing the manufactures of
Australia in Great Britain instead of as
before the war in Germany and other
countries. Mr. Hughes also conferred
with representatives of South Africa, the
West Indies, and India on the subject of
the sugar industry with regard to the
control of that industry after the war.
AMERICAN TRADE INVOLVED
The proceedings of the Allies' Eco-
nomic Conference have roused a good
deal of curiosity, and in some cases
anxiety, as to the effect of the proposals
upon the commerce of neutral countries.
The matter was brought up in the United
States Senate on June 29 by Senator
Stone of Missouri, Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Foreign Relations. On his mo-
tion a resolution was adopted calling on
President Wilson to acquaint the Sen-
ate, if possible, with the meaning and
the extent of the decisions of the Paris
Conference.

Senator Stone intimated that he feared
the treaty or agreement entered into by
the Allies might prove harmful com-
mercially to the United States unless
provisions were made in revenue or tar-
iff legislation then pending in the House
to safeguard American interests. While
on its face the Paris undertaking bound
the allied powers only to present a united
commercial front to the Central Powers,
there was a suspicion that the trade boy-
cott might extend to neutrals after the
war.

" The situation," said Senator Stone,
" presents considerations that are pos-

sibly of great .interest to the United
States, and it seems to me that when the
Committee on Finance comes to consider
revenue legislation it should be informed,
as far as possible, as to the exact char-
acter of that conference, and of the
treaty said to have been entered into."

Senator Stone laid stress particularly
on a statement issued by the British
Board of Trade, which among other
things said that " the Allies declare their
common determination to insure the re-
establishment of countries suffering
from acts of destruction, spoliation, and
unjust requisition, and decide to join in
devising means to secure the restoration
of those countries by giving them a prior
claim on raw materials, industrial and
agricultural plans and stock, and mer-
cantile fleets, or by assisting them
in re-equipping themselves in these
respects."

This statement further declared that
" the Allies are to conserve all their
natural resources during the period of
reconstruction after the war for common
use," and that " in order to defend their
commerce against economic aggression
resulting from dumping or other modes
of unfair competition the Allies decided
to fix by agreement a period during
which the commerce of the enemy
powers will be submitted to special treat-
ment, and goods originating in their
countries will be subjected to prohibition
or to a special regime of an effective
character."

A step toward making the United
States independent of other countries for
dyes was announced when the Democrats
of the Ways and Means Committee
brought into the House of Representa-
tives on July 1 the Revenue bill, which is
intended to raise $210,000,000 additional
revenue. It is proposed that there should
be protective duties for a limited period
on the importation of dyestuffs for the
purpose of encouraging the American
manufacture of dyes to relieve the ex-
isting shortage. Another section of the
bill provides against dumping.

TO DEFEND OUR TRADE
A further step toward formulating a
definite American policy of defense

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927

against European trade-war measures
was taken by the United States Senate in
the debate of July 10. Senator Stone,
(Democrat,) Chairman of the Committee
on Foreign Relations, outlined the situa-
tion and was supported by Senator Lodge
of Massachusetts, (Republican,) who de-
manded that the State Department be
asked to get all possible information in
regard to what the Central Powers, as
well as the Allies, intend to do to protect
themselves commercially after the war.

After submitting to the Senate a re-
port of the recent economic conference of
the Allies at Paris, Mr. Stone called at-
tention to what would happen if Ger-
many should be the victor. He pointed
out that the formation of a customs union
between Austria-Hungary and Germany
would include 120,000,000 people and
probably draw within its influence Switz-
erland, Holland, the Scandinavian coun-
tries, and Finland in a vast zollverein of
Central Europe. On the other hand, the
Entente allies, he said, had already given
us a fairly definite suggestion of their
policy, and it was impossible to escape the
belief that they had in mind a co-opera-
tive plan to accomplish economic results
which would not be in accord with the
interests of the United States. He de-
clared :

The chief mutual purpose of the allied na-
tions is to wage a commercial war against
Germany after Germany has been defeated.
There has been no attempt to disguise their
purpose. But I am impressed with the appre-
hension that therfe is a purpose of a larger
reach. There is talk of an international un-
derstanding among the allied powers that
they will work with each other and for them-
selves as against not only Germany but the
rest of the world. The underlying purpose
is to aid each other in recouping and rehabil-
itating themselves. There is a tendency
toward a vast and exclusive industrial union.

In support of this Senator Stone quot-
ed from the speech recently delivered by
William Morris Hughes, the Australian
Premier, in the British Parliament, in
which the purpose was declared to hold
the sea-carrying trade and control the
markets of the world. He suggested
that Great Britain would undertake
through a commercial union to control
the world's supply of copper, lead, zinc,
tungsten, petrol, rubber, and cotton, so

that " all the world would be suppliant
at its feet." Senator Stone continued:

Perhaps it would be only natural for these
nations, victorious in war, to turn a cold, icy
face to America and all the rest of the
world— crush Germany industrially as well as
physically— and join in a common effort to
rebuild their shattered fortunes by concerted
action without deference to other nations.
That policy would be short-sighted, resulting
in retaliatory measures, and wounded na-
tions would suffer most if they entered upon
a struggle with the neutral nations who
might be most helpful to them in a time of
such dire stress. But their views and ours
may not be in accord.

OUR STRONGEST WEAPON
Senator Lodge followed Senator Stone
by urging the passage of a resolution
calling for full information regarding
the trade-war measures now on foot
among both groups of European bellig-
erents. To have all possible informa-
tion, he said, was the first and obvious
step toward self-defense. He continued :

At this time the economic situation must be
largely a matter of pure speculation. All we
know is that the greatest war which has ever
afflicted mankind has been raging for two
years in Europe and that, whatever its phy-
sical and political results may be, such a
convulsion cannot but bring in its train, when
peace comes, enormous economic changes.
What the powers will do when peace comes,
whether defeated or victorious, no man may
say; but we may be perfectly certain they
will devote every effort to restoring normal
conditions and bringing back as rapidly as
possible sound economic conditions in their
respective countries. That they will attempt
legislation or agreements for that purpose is
not an unreasonable inference.

What concerns us in the United States, and
alone concerns us, is to be as *vell prepared
as we can be for the future, which neces-
sarily cannot be known, but about which we
can only guess. We know that the results
will be of the most far-reaching character.

The only wise course for us is to be pre-
pared for any contingency. There are two
forms of preparation— the physical and the
economic. We ought to make every possible
preparation for our own defense by sea and
by land. I believe we are about to make
suitable preparation by sea. I wish I could
say the same as to our 'preparation by land.
We must have such defense as will secure
our own peace and satisfy the world that we
are not to be attacked either on our Pacific
or Atlantic Coast by anybody.

We know that the temporary prosperity,
so called, due to the vast expenditure of for-
eign money in this country during the last
two years, is wholly artificial and unreal. It
cannot last. Purchases for foreign account

928 CURRENT HISTORY : A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

are said to be declining already, because the
Allies are now largely supplying their own
needs. Those vast expenditures will cease
absolutely on the coming of peace, and we
shall find ourselves in a world where the
purchasing power of the nations who have
hitherto bought of us in normal times will be
immensely diminished. We shall also find
ourselves in a world where capital has been
destroyed in unheard-of amounts, industry
paralyzed, and all the stricken countries
working in desperation to restore their indus-
trial fortune.

We shall be required to meet also what is
generally referred to as industrial organiza-
tion. If we are to meet some of the inter-
national combinations likely to occur, some
of the tariffs likely to be imposed, we must

remember the weapon in our hands is the
fact that we have the best market in the
world for import and export, and if we hold
that weapon with a strong hand the nations
of the world will think twice before they
throw that market away or attempt to de-
stroy exports essential to their being.

They will try to close the gates of trade
and commerce upon us in many directions.
In order to organize our industries to make
them a bulwark against the economic strug-
gles we may have to face, the first thing is
not to cripple but to encourage them.- We
must put them in condition to stand behind
the people and the Government, to meet any
tests, and make the world understand we
cannot be invaded either physically or eco-
nomically with impunity.

Text of Economic Program Adopted by Allies

npHE important economic conference
JL of the Entente allies, held in Paris,
June 14-17, formulated an elaborate
plan of trade warfare against the Cen-
tral Powers, both for the tightening of
the present war blockade and for the
curtailing of German commercial activ-
ities in the years succeeding the restora-
tion of peace. The text of the resolu-
tions adopted, as transmitted by Ambas-
sador Sharp to Secretary Lansing, is
given below in full:
A — Measures for duration of the war.

1. Unification of laws and regulations pro-
hibiting trading with the enemy as follows :

The Allies will forbid their nationals and
all persons residing in their territory all com-
merce with :

Inhabitants of enemy countries of whatever
nationality.

Enemy subjects wherever resident.

Individuals, commercial houses, and com-
panies whose business is controlled entirely or
in part by enemy subjects or which are sub-
ject to enemy influences, and who will be
listed.

They will prohibit the entry into their terri-
tory of all merchandise originating in or
coming from an enemy country.

Endeavor will be made to establish a system
for canceling contracts entered into with
enemy subjects and detrimental to national
interests.

2. Commercial houses owned or exploited
by enemy subjects on territory of the Allies
will be placed under sequestration or control.
Measures will be taken to liquidate certain
of these houses as well as their merchandise,
the sums thus realized remaining under se-
questration or control.

3. Besides the prohibitions of exportation

rendered necessary by the internal condition
of each ally they will complete not only in
their territory, but also in their dominions,
protectorates, and colonies, the measures al-
ready taken against provisioning the enemy.

By unifying lists of contraband of war and
prohibitions of export, and especially in pro-
hibiting the exportation of all merchandise
declared as absolute or conditional contra-
band of war.

By subordinating1 the granting of authoriza-
tion for export to neutral countries whenever
such exportation might be effected to enemy
territory either by creating a controlling
board in these countries through mutual
agreement of the Allies or by special guaran-
tees, such as limiting the quantity exported,
Consul control, &c.

B — Transitory measures for the com-
mercial, industrial, agricultural, and mari-
time period of reconstruction of the allied
countries.

1. Proclaiming their solidarity for the res-
toration of the countries, victims of doefcnic-
tion, spoliation, and abusive requisition, de-
cide to investigate in common the means of
restoring to such countries as a special priv-
ilege or of aiding them to renew their raw
material, industrial and agricultural ma-
chinery, live stock, and merchant marine.

2. Noting that the war has terminated all
the treaties of commerce which united them
with the enemy powers, and considering that
it is essential that during the period of eco-
nomic reconstruction which will follow the
cessation of hostilities the liberty of none of
the Allies shall be hampered by the possibte
pretension on the part of the enemy powers
of a claim to the most favored nation treat-
ment, the Allies agree that the benefit of this
treatment shall not be accorded to such pow-
ers during a number of years which shall be

THE ALLIES' ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

929

decided by means of a mutual understanding
between the Allies.

The Allies mutually agree for a number of
years, and in the greatest measure possible,
to provide compensating outlets in such cases
where disadvantageous consequences may re-
sult for the commerce by the application of
the agreement mentioned in the preceding
paragraphs.

3. The Allies declare themselves united in
preserving for the allied countries in prefer-
ence to all others their natural resources
during the period of commercial, industrial,
agricultural, and maritime reconstruction,
and to this end they agree to establish special
arrangements which will facilitate an ex-
change of resources.

4. In order to protect their commerce, in-
dustries, agriculture, and navigation against
an economic, depression resulting from dump-
ing, or against any other unfair method of
competition, the Allies decide to come to an
agreement to fix a period of time during
which the commerce of the enemy powers
shall be subjected either to prohibition or to
a special system which shall be efficacious.
The Allies shall reach an understanding by
diplomatic channels regarding the special
regulations to be imposed during the period
above mentioned upon ships of the enemy
powers.

5. The Allies shall seek measures to be
taken in common or separately to prevent the
exercise in their territories by enemy subjects

1 of certain industries or professions of in-
terest to the national defense or economic in-
dependence.

C — Permanent measures of mutual aid and
collaboration between the Allies.

The Allies are resolved to take without de-
lay the necessary measures to rid themselves
of dependence on enemy countries as regards
raw material and manufactured articles
which are essential to the normal develop-
ment of their economic activity.

These measures should tend to assure the
independence of the Allies not only regarding
those matters concerning the sources of sup-
ply, but also those touching the financial,
commercial, and maritime organization.

In order to carry out their resolution the

Allies will adopt such means as seem to them
most appropriate according to the nature of
the merchandise and following the principles
which govern the economic policies.

Especially they may have recourse to sub-
sidized enterprises under the direction or con-
trol of the Governments themselves, or to pay-
ment to encourage scientific and technical re-
searches, the development of industries, and
natural resources, or to customs tariffs, or to
temporary or permanent prohibitions, or even
to a combination of these various means.

Whatever means may be adopted, the end
sought by the Allies is to increase in large
measure the production of the whole of their
territory, so that they may maintain and de-
velop their economic situation, and independ-
ence with respect to the enemy.

So as to permit a reciprocal sale of their
products, the Allies engage to take measures
destined to facilitate exchange thereof as
much by the establishment of direct and rapid
services of transportation by land and sea
at reduced rates as by the development and
amelioration of postal, telegraph, and other
communications.

The Allies agree to bring together technical
delegates to prepare measures suitable to
unify as much as possible their laws concern-
ing patents, marks, or origins, and trade-
marks.

The Allies will adopt in regard to the in-
ventions, trademarks, literary and artistic
works created during the war in an enemy
country a system as uniform as possible and
applicable after the cessation of hostilities.
This system shall be elaborated by the tech-
nical delegates of the Allies.

D— The representatives of the allied Govern-
ments, realizing that, for their common de-
fense against the enemy have resolved to
adopt a similar economic policy under condi-
tions determined by resolutions taken, and,
recognizing that the efficiency of this policy
depends absolutely upon the immediate put-
ting into effect of these resolutions, agree to
recommend their respective Governments to
take without delay all suitable measures for
enabling this policy to produce immediately
its full and entire effect, and to communicate
to each other the decisions reached for the
attainment of this purpose.

The Trade War Against Germany

By Philipp Heineken

General Director North German Lloyd Company

mHAT they hate us, all our big and
JL little enemies in the northwest, the
west, the south, and the east, and
that they have sworn to bring about
our 'economic and political ruin, is

known to us; we already have an
almost compassionate smile for this hate
and this impotent desperation, especial-
ly as we see the military hopes and plans
of our enemies go to pieces against the

930 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

iron shield of our army and navy. But
that this hate is able to cause such a
dreadful confusion in the heads of the
political economists of these countries
and make them forget all the laws of
economic logic, as is shown in this
preaching of a trade war against us, is
one of the most difficult riddles of this
great time.

The remarkable part of all this is not
that the future trade war is to be car-
ried on against the Central Powers with
every means at hand — for instance,
preferential tariffs within the British
Empire for English goods — that is, rec-
iprocity in imports and exports, com-
plete exclusion of the great German and
Austrian shipping companies from the
passenger and emigrant ports by for-
bidding them to lantf or take on passen-
gers in any port of the united hostile
countries, the handicapping of the freight
business of these companies through the
imposition of high fees, &c. — but that
our enemies are na'ive enough to believe
that the Central Powers would calmly
put up with all this without replying with
countermeasures in the economic field.
On the one side it is wished entirely to
prevent the exportation of German goods,
either fully manufactured or half made
up, and of raw materials in the future.
But right here the plan already fails to
work out entirely as desired, as there
will be some persons willing to make
concessions in favor of certain German
articles which our enemies, even with the
most serious efforts, cannot do without
forever, or which they cannot produce
in as good quality, despite all endeavors
and the most ruthless stealing of patents
" Made in Germany "!

Regarding German imports from hos-
tile foreign countries, too, the people over
here are not worrying overmuch. Paper
lies still, and it requires only a stroke of
the pen to rob the Central Powers of
every hope of being able to obtain raw
materials from foreign lands in the fut-
ure; yet it is secretly hoped or taken for
granted that Germany and her allies will
continue thankfully to receive such arti-
cles, for the most part manufactured, as
the members of the Multiple Entente
cannot unload upon the neutrals!

Here is where we find the first contra-
diction, for a Germany damaged by a
lack of export trade and forced to be con-
tent with a passive trade balance would
hardly be in a position to resume her im-
portation from abroad upon its former
scale. Quite aside from this, it betrays
a serious lack of knowledge and logic re-
garding economic matters when a person
believes that Germany could be perma-
nently excluded from her former mighty
import business without causing the
heaviest kind of damage to the exporting
countries concerned. What would become
of a manufacturer who had been conduct-
ing his business for decades upon the
basis of a certain annual production, and
who should suddenly, from some reason
or :qther, chase away his former best cus-
tomer without first having made ar-
rangements for a substitute in another
quarter? Well, the answer would not be
very hard to find. The manufacturer
would find the other markets surfeited,
and consequently could find no place to
sell his goods; in other words, he would
be suffocated by his own overproduction
and go bankrupt. Exactly the same fate
threatens the countries that exported
goods to Germany up to the outbreak of
the war. Those "heavy exports that went
to Germany simply cannot be disposed of
elsewhere. The American cotton, the
California fruit, the coffee of Brazil, to
which the German market is closed dur-
ing the war, would be hard hit if this
condition, according to the plans of our
enemies, were to be made permanent in
time of peace.

So far as England is concerned, and
in line with what we have learned dur-
ing this war, such an injury to the eco«
nomic life of the people of the neutral
countries would be rather an incentive
than an obstacle to further progress
along the road chosen in the active and
passive boycott of Germany. For there
is certainly no doubt in intelligent circles
in neutral countries as to what may be
expected from Albion's lust for economic
expansion after the war, nor that that
land, now ostensibly fighting for the
rights of the weaker, would hesitate a
moment, under certain circumstances,
unscrupulously to sacrifice both its pres-

THE ALLIES' ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

931

ent allies and the neutrals in its own in-
terest.

Happily, not only neutral countries
would have to regret the loss of the Ger-
man market, but England itself, in the
form of its colonies, would be seriously
hit by such a change in the conditions of
the export trade of the world. It seems,
however, that on the other side of the
Channel they have already entirely for-
gotten that Chamberlain's broad idea of
a " Greater Britain " in an imperialistic-
economic sense was wrecked in its day
principally on the opposition of the col-
onies, with Australia in the lead, because
they feared the loss of their non-English,
and principally their German, export
field. Nothing has happened since then
to change these facts. Today the Eng-
lish colonies in Africa, India, Australia,
&c., would suffer just as much as Ger-
many herself through the loss of the
German export market for their products,
such as fats, oils, wool, cotton, tobacco,
jute, fruits, &c.

It is significant that just at the pres-
ent juncture there is an increase in the
number of voices among our enemies
that declare the rigorous prosecution of
the trade war against Germany to be
simply impossible. An English mem-
ber of Parliament declared recently that
not' a single one of the propositions de-
signed for the economic injury of Ger-
many could be put into effect without
at the same time injuring English trade.
A boycott of German trade after the
war would only have the effect of driving
all the neutrals into Germany's arms, as
she would naturally make them particu-
larly advantageous terms. In a similar
manner, in connection with the financial-
political conference of the Multiple En-
tente at Paris, it was asserted from the
Liberal side in the British Parliament
that the boycotting of German trade im-
plied an extremely dangerous policy
from which England itself would suffer
the greatest damage. According to the
speaker, a permanent peace must be
based upon the principle that Germany,
after she had made atonement for her
crime ( ! ) should be forgiven. Peace
must accord Germany an honorable posi-

tion among the nations. We are con-
vinced from our successes up to now on
land, on water, and in the air, that the
decision as to who will have to ask for-
giveness will be placed in our hands; but
one thing, at least, is certain, and that is
that Germany simply cannot be isolated
economically without entailing the de-
struction of the entire international
economic system and burying our en-
emies as well as the neutrals under its
fragments.

So it appears all the more remarkable
to us Germans when the chauvinistic
part of the hostile, principally the Eng-
lish press, with the support of the enemy
Governments and of representative trade
bodies, (compare the acts of the English
Chambers of Commerce Congress at the
end of last February,) agitates for this
completely Utopian idea of eliminating
Germany from the world market with
an energy worthy of a better cause. If
we do not wish to deny that our op-
ponents have any intelligence or logic at
all, there is really but one explanation of
this phenomenon: Our opponents from
the beginning had no illusions at any
time as to the uselessness of the entire
agitation, but something had to be done
to compensate for their military failures,
and at the same time some slogan must
be created which would again rekindle
the enthusiasm of our enemies for the
war that had so seriously slackened, and
this slogan was the economic destruction
of Germany after the war. And besides,
by means of this threatened boycotting
of the Central Powers, our enemies al-
ready wish to create an artificial object
of compensation which they would be will-
ing graciously to renounce at the peace
negotiations when calculated against
the military successes of Germany and
her brave allies. In a word, they want
to " bluff " us in the good old English
style! There is a very simple remedy
for this, and that is to keep cool and
leave everything in the hands of our
brave brothers, who, out there on sea and
land, are upon the best road toward lay-
ing the foundations upon which Germany
will be able to build the economic future
that seems right to her.

Admiral Jellicoe's Official Report
of the Battle of Jutland

Vice Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's official report of the North Sea naval battle, which the
British call the battle of Jutland and the Germans the battle of the Skagerrak, was made
public on July 6. It is universally regarded in Great Britain as establishing the battle as a
British victory. The German and English estimates of each other's losses- arc still widely at
variance. The most conservative British estimate places the total German loss at 109,220
tons, as compared with a British loss of 112,250 tons. The German Admiralty continues to
admit losses amounting only to 63,000 tonnage, as against an asserted British loss of about
125,000 tons. These discrepancies can be adjusted only after the publication of full German
official reports. Readers desiring a good tactical summary of Admiral Jellicoe's narrative will
find it in the brief commentary of Admiral Bridge immediately following Jellicoe's statement.

A)MIRAL JELLICOE'S report to
the British Admiralty is the
fullest official account thus far
available of the famous battle
off the coast of Jutland, though even
here the full list of ships and comman-
ders is "withheld from publication for
the present, in accordance with the usual
practice." Following is the full text of
all the vital portions of the document:

Be pleased to inform the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty that the German
High Sea Fleet was brought to action on the
31st of May, 1910, to the westward of Jutland
Bank, off the coast of Denmark.

The ships of the Grand Fleet, in pursuance
of the general policy of periodical sweeps
through the North Sea, had left their base
on the previous day in accordance with in-
structions issued by me. In the early after-
noon of Wednesday, May 31, the first and
second battle cruiser squadrons, the first,
second, and third light cruiser squadrons,
and destroyers from the first, ninth, tenth,
and thirteenth flotillas, supported by the fifth
battle squadron, were, in accordance with
my directions, scouting to the southward of
the battle fleet, which was accompanied by
the third battle cruiser squadron, the first
and second cruiser squadrons, the fourth light
cruiser squadron, and the fourth, eleventh,
and twelfth flotillas.

The junction of the battle fleet with the -
scouting force after the enemy had been
sighted was delayed owing to the southerly
course steered by our advanced force during
the first hour after commencing their action
with the enemy battle cruisers. This, of
course, was unavoidable, as had our battle
cruisers not followed the enemy to the south-
ward the main fleets would never have been
in contact.

BEATTY IN THE LEAD

The battle cruiser fleet, gallantly led by
Vice Admiral Beatty, and admirably sup-
ported by the ships of the fifth battle squad-
ron under Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas,
fought the action under, at times, disad-

vantageous conditions, especially in regard
to light, in a manner that was in keeping
with the best traditions of the service.

Admiral Jellicoe estimates the German
losses at two battleships of the dread-
nought type, one of the Deutschland type,
which was seen to sink ; the battle cruiser
Liitzow, admitted by the Germans; one
battle cruiser of the dreadnought type,
one battle cruiser seen to be so severely
damaged that its return was extremely
doubtful; five light cruisers, seen to
sink — one of them possibly a battleship;
six destroyers seen to sink, three de-
stroyers so damaged that it was doubtful
if they would be able to reach port, and
a submarine sunk. (In the foregoing
Admiral Jellicoe enumerates twenty-one
German vessels as probably lost. The
last British report placed the total at
eighteen.) In concluding Admiral Jellicoe
says :

The conditions of low visibility under
which* the day action took place and the ap-
proach of darkness enhanced the difficulty
of giving- an accurate report of the damage
inflicted or the names of the ships sunk by
our forces. But after a most careful ex-
amination of the evidence of all the officers
who testified to seeing enemy vessels actu-
ally sink and personal interviews with a
large number of these officers, I am of the
opinion that the list shown in the inclosure
gives the minimum numbers, though it is
possible it is not accurate as regards the
particular class of vessel, especially those
which were sunk during the night attack.
In addition to the vessels sunk, it is un-
questionable that many other ships were very
seriously damaged by gunfire and torpedo
attack.

LOSSES STATED

I deeply regret to report the loss of his
Majesty's ships Queen Mary, Indefatigable,
Invinncible, Defense, Black Prince, Warrior,

ADMIRAL JELLICOE'S REPORT OF BATTLE OF JUTLAND 933

Tipperary, Ardent, Fortune, Shark, Sparrow
Hawk, Nestor, Nomad, and Turbulent.
Still more do I regret the resultant heavy
loss of life. The death of such gallant and
distinguished officers as Arbuthnot, Hood,
Captain Sowerby, Captain Prowse, Captain
Cay, Captain Bonham, Captain Charles J.
Wintour, and Captain Stanley B. Ellis, and
those who perished with them, is a serious
loss to the navy and to the country. They
led officers and men who were equally gal-
lant, and whose death is mourned by their
comrades in the Grand Fleet. They fell
doing their duty nobly — a death which they
would have been first to desire.

The enemy fought with the gallantry that
was expected of him. We particularly ad-
mired the conduct of those on board a dis-
abled German light cruiser which passed
down the British line shortly after the de-
ployment under a heavy fire, which was re-
turned by the only gun left in action. The
conduct of thei officers and men was entirely
beyond praise.

On all sides it is reported that the glorious
traditions of the past were most worthily
upheld ; whether in the heavy ships, cruisers,
light cruisers, or destroyers, the same ad-
mirable -spirit prevailed. The officers and
men were cool and determined, with a cheeri-
ness that would have carried them through
anything. The heroism of the wounded was
the admiration of all. I cannot adequately
express the pride with which the spirit of
the fleet filled me.

It must never be forgotten that the prelude
to action is the work of the engineroom de-
partment. During an action the officers and
men of that department perform their most
important duties without the incentive which
a knowledge of the course of action gives
to those on deck. The qualities of discipline
and endurance are taxed to the utmost under
these conditions. They were, as always, most
fully maintained throughout the operations.
Several ships attained speeds that had never
before been reached, thus showing very clear-
ly their high state of steaming efficiency.
Failures in material were conspicuous by
their absence.

Of the medical officers Admiral Jel-
licoe says:

Lacking in many cases all essentials for
performing critical operations, with their
staffs seriously depleted by casualties, they
worked untiringly with the greatest success.

The hardest fighting fell to the battle
cruiser fleet, says Admiral Jelliicoe, the
units of which were less heavily armored
than their opponents, and he expresses
high appreciation of the handling of all
the vessels and commends Admirals Bur-
ney, Jerram, Sturdee, Evan-Thomas,
Duff, and Leveson, and continues:

Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty once again
showed his fine qualities of gallant leader-

ship, firm determination, and correct strate-
gic fighting. He appreciated situations at
once on sighting the first enemy's lighter
forces, then his battle cruisers, finally his
battleships. I can fully sympathize with his
feelings when the evening mist and fading
light robbed the fleet of that complete victory
for which he had manoeuvred, for which the
vessels in company with him had striven so
hard. The services rendered by him, not
only on this but on 'two previous occasions,
have been of the very greatest value.

FROM BEATTY'S REPORT

Vice Admiral Beatty's report to Ad-
miral Jell'icoe particularly mentions the
work of the Engadine, Commander Rob-
inson, which towed the Warrior seventy-
five miles during the night of May 31,
and continues:

It is impossible to give a definite statement
of the losses inflicted on the enemy. Visibil-
ity was fqr the most part low and fluctu-
ating. Caution forbade me to close the range
too much with my inferior force. A review
of all the reports leads me to conclude that
the enemy's losses were considerably greater
than those we sustained in spite of their
superiority, and included battleships, battle
cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. This
is eloquent testimony to the very high stand-
ard of gunnery and torpedo efficiency of
his Majesty's ships. The control and drill
remained undisturbed throughout, in many
cases, despite the heavy damage to material
and personnel.

Our superiority over the enemy in this re-
spect was very marked, their efficiency be-
coming rapidly reduced under punishment,
while ours was maintained throughout. As
was to be expected, the behavior of the ships'
companies under the terrible conditions of
a modern sea battle was magnificent with-
out exception. The strain on their morale
was a severe test of discipline and training.
The officers and men were imbued with one
thought — a desire to defeat the enemy.
RARE BRAVERY OF A BOY

The fortitude of the wounded was admira-
ble. A boy of the first class, John Travers
Cornwall* of the Chester, was mortally
wounded early in the action. He, neverthe-

*Cornwall joined the navy in August, 1915,
and went into the training school. He had
been at sea only a few weeks when he was
killed. The Captain of the Chester in a letter
to the boy's mother says : " He remained
steady at his most exposed post at the gun
waiting for orders. His gun would not
boar on the enemy. All but two of the crew
were killed or wounded, and he was the only
one who was in such an exposed position, but
he felt he might be needed, and indeed he
might have been, so he stayed there stand-
ing and waiting under a heavy fire, with just
his own brave heart and God's help to sup-
port him. I cannot express to you my ad-
miration of the son you have lost from this
world. I hope to place in the boy's mess a
plate with his name on and the date and the
words, ' Faithful Unto Death.' "

934 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

less, remained standing alone at a most ex-
posed post quietly awaiting orders until the
end of the action, with the gun's crew dead
or wounded all around him. His age was
under 16% years. I regret that he has since
died. I recommend his case for special recog-
nition, in justice to his memory and as an
acknowledgment of the high example set
by him.

In such a conflict as raged for five hours
it was inevitable that' we should suffer
severe losses. It was necessary to maintain
touch with greatly superior forces in fluctu-
ating visibility, often very low. We lost the
Invincible, the Indefatigable, and Queen
Mary, from which ships there were few
survivors. The casualties in the other ships
were heavy. I wish to express my deepest
regret at the loss of so many gallant com-
rades, officers and men. They died glori-
ously.

SIGHTING THE ENEMY

Extracts from Vice Admiral Beatty's
report give the course of events before
the battle fleet came on the scene of
action. At 2:20 o'clock in the afternoon
the Galatea reported the presence of
enemy vessels. At 2:35 o'clock consider-
able smoke was sighted to the eastward.
This made it clear that the enemy was to
the northward and eastward, and that it
would be impossible for him to round
Horn Reef without being brought to ac-
tion. The course of the British ships
consequently was altered to the eastward,
and subsequently northeastward.

The enemy was sighted at 3:31 o'clock.
His force consisted of five battle cruisers.
Vice Admiral Beatty's first and third
light cruiser squadrons, without awaiting
orders, spread eastward, forming a
screen in advance of the battle cruiser
squadron under Admiral Evan-Thomas,
consisting of four battleships of the
Queen Elizabeth class. The light cruis-
ers engaged the enemy and the cruiser
squadron came up at high speed, taking
station ahead of the battle cruisers. At
3:30 o'clock Vice Admiral Beatty in-
creased the speed to 25 knots and formed
the line of battle, the second battle cruis-
er squadron forming astern of the first,
with two destroyer flotillas ahead.

Vice Admiral Beatty then turned east-
southeast slightly, converging on the
enemy now at a range of 23,000 yards.
The fifth battle cruiser squadron was
then bearing north-northwest 10,000
yards distant. The visibility was good.

Continuing his report, Vice Admiral
Beatty said :

The sun was behind us. The wind was
southeast. Being between the enemy and
his base, our situation was both tactically
and strategically good.

BOTH FLEETS OPEN FIRE

Both forces opened fire simultaneously at
3 :48 at a range of 18,500 yards. The course
was altered southward, the enemy steering
parallel distant 18,000 to 14,500 yards. The
fifth battle squadron opened fire at a range
of 20,000 yards at 4 :08. The enemy fire then
seemed to slacken. Although the presence of
destroyers caused inconvenience on account
of smoke, they preserved the battleships from
submarine attack.

Two submarines being sighted, and a flo-
tilla of ten destroyers being ordered to at-
tack the enemy with torpedoes, they moved
out at 4:15 o'clock simultaneously with the
approoach of German destroyers. The attack
was carried out gallantly with great determi-
nation. Before arriving at a favorable posi-
tion to fire torpedoes they intercepted an
enemy force consisting of one light cruiser
and fifteen destroyers. A fierce engagement
at close quarters ensued, and the enemy was
forced to retire on their battleships, having
two destroyers sunk and their torpedo attack
frustrated. Our destroyers sustained no loss,
but the attack on the enemy cruisers was
rendered less effective.

The Nestor, Nomad, and Mineator, under
Commander Edward Bingham, pressed the
attack on the battle cruisers and fired two
torpedoes. Being subjected to a heavy fire
at 3,000 yards, the Nomad was badly hit
and remained between the lines. The Nestor
also was badly hit, but was afloat when last
seen. The Petard, Nerissa, Turbulent, and
Termagant also are praised.

These destroyer attacks were indicative of
the spirit pervading the navy and worthy of
its highest traditions.

From 4:15 to 4:43 o'clock the conflict
between the battle cruiser squadrons
was fierce and the resolute British fire
began to tell. The rapidity and accuracy
of the Germans' fire depreciated consid-
erably. The third German ship was seen
to be afire. The German battle fleet was
reported ahead and the destroyers were
recalled.

Vice Admiral Beatty altered his course
to the northward to lead the Germans
toward the British battle fleet. The sec-
ond light cruiser squadron closed to 13,-
000 yards of the German battle fleet and
came under heavy but ineffective fire.
The fifth battle squadron engaged the
German battle cruisers with all guns,
and about 5 o'clock came under the fire

ADMIRAL JELLICOE'S REPORT OF BATTLE OF JUTLAND 935

of the leading ships of the German battle
fleet.

The weather became unfavorable, Vice-
Admiral Beatty's ships being silhouetted
against a clear horizon to the Germans,
whose ships were mostly obscured by
mist.

Between 5 and 6 o'clock the action
continued at 14,000 yards on a northerly
course, the German ships receiving very
severe punishment, one battle cruiser
quitting the line considerably damaged.
At 5:35 o'clock the Germans were grad-
ually hauling eastward and receiving
severe punishment at the head of the
line, probably acting on information from
their light cruisers which were engaged
with the third battle cruiser squadron or
from Zeppelins which possibly were
present.

At 5:56 o'clock the leading ships of
the British battle fleet were sighted
bearing north, distant five miles. Vice
Admiral Beatty thereon proceeded east
at the greatest speed, bringing the range
to 12,000 yards. Only three German
battle cruisers were then visible, followed
by battleships of the Konig type.
THE BATTLE FLEET

Vice Admiral Jellicoe then takes up
the story of the battle fleet. Informed
that the Germans were sighted, the
fleet proceeded at full speed on a south-
east by south course during two hours
before arriving on the scene of the battle.
The steaming qualities of the older ships
were severely tested. When the battle
fleet was meeting the battle cruisers and
the fifth battle squadron, great care was
necessary to insure that the British ships
were not mistaken for the German war-
ships.

Vice Admiral Beatty reported the posi-
tion of the German battle fleet at 6:15
o'clock. Vice Admiral Jellicoe then
formed the line of battle, Vice Admiral
Beatty meantime having formed the
battle cruisers ahead of the battle fleet,
and the fleets became engaged. During
the deployment the Defense and Warrior
were seen passing between the British
and German fleets under heavy fire. The
Defense disappeared and the Warrior
passed to the rear, disabled.

Vice Admiral Jellicoe considers it
probable that Sir Robert K. Arbuthnot,
the Rear Admiral who was lost on board
the Defense, was not aware, during the
engagement with the German light
cruisers, of the approach of their heavy
ships owing to the mist, until he found
himself in close proximity to the main
German fleet. Before he could withdraw
his ships were caught under a heavy fire
and disabled. When the Black Prince of
the same squadron was sunk is fiot
known, but a wireless signal was received
from her between 8 and 9 o'clock.

Owing principally to the mist, it was
possible to see only a few ships at a
time. Toward the close of the battle
only four or five were visible and never
more than eight to twelve.

ADMIRAL HOOD'S SQUADRON

The third battle cruiser squadron,
under Rear Admiral Horace Alexander
Hood, was in advance of the batle fleet
and ordered to reinforce Vice Admiral
Beatty. While en route the Chester,
Captain Lawson, engaged three or four
German light cruisers for twenty min-
utes. Despite many casualties, her
steaming qualities were unimpaired.

Describing the work of the third squad-
ron, Vice Admiral Beatty said Rear Ad-
miral Hood brought it into action ahead
of the Lion " in the most inspiring man-
ner, worthy of his great naval ancestors."
Vice Admiral Hood, at 6:25 P. M., was
only 8,000 yards from the leading Ger-
man ship, and the British vessels poured
a hot fire into her and caused her to turn
away. Vice Admiral Beatty, continuing,
reports :

By G:50 o'clock the battle cr.uisers were
clear of our leading battle squadron and I
ordered the third battle cruiser squadron to
prolong the line astern, and reduced the
speed to eighteen knots. The visibility at
this time was very indifferent, not more
than four miles, and the enemy ships were
temporarily lost sight of after 6 P. M. Al-
though the visibility became reduced, it un-
doubtedly was more favorable to us than to
the enemy. At intervals their ships showed
up clearly, enabling us to punish them very
severely and to establish a definite superiority
over them. It was clear that the enemy suf-
fered considerable damage, battle cruisers
and battleships alike. The head of their line
was crumpled up, leaving their batleships as
a target for the majority of our battle cruis-

936

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ers. Before leaving, the fifth battle' squadron
was also engaging battleships.

The report of Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas
shows excellent results were obtained. It
can safely be said that his magnificent squad-
ron wrought great execution.

GERMANS IN RETREAT

The action between the battle fleets
lasted, intermittently, from 6:17 to 8:20
o'clock at ranges between 9,000 and 12,-
000 yards. The Germans constantly
turned away and opened the range un-
der the cover of destroyer attacks and
smoke screens as the effect of the Brit-
ish fire was felt, and alterations of the
course from southeast by east to west
in an endeavor to close up brought the
British battle fleet, which commenced
action in an advantageous position on
the Germans' bow, to a quarterly bear-
ing from the German battle line, but
placed Vice Admiral Jellicoe between the
Germans and their bases.

Vice Admiral Jellicoe says : " During
the somewhat brief periods that the
ships of the High Sea Fleet were visible
through the mist, a heavy and effective
fire kept up by the battleships and bat-
tle cruisers of the Grand Fleet caused
me much satisfaction. The enemy ves-
sels were seen to be constantly hit, some
being observed to haul out of the line.
At least one sank. The enemy's return
fire at this period was not effective and
the damage caused to our ships was in-
significant."

Vice Admiral Beatty's report cover-
ing this period says the German ships
he was engaging showed signs of pun-
ishment. The visibility improved at sun-
set at 7:17, when he re-engaged, and de-
stroyers at the head of the German line
emitted volumes of gray smoke, covering
their capital ships as with a pall, under
cover of which they turned away and
disappeared. At 7:45 the light cruiser
squadrons, sweeping westward, located
two German battleships and cruisers. At
8:20 Vice Admiral Beatty heavily en-
gaged them at 10,000 yards. The leading
ship, being repeatedly hit by the Lion,
turned away in flames with a heavy list.
The Princess Royal set fire to a three-
funneled battleship. The New Zealand
and Indomitable reported that the ship
they engaged left the line heeling over

and afire. At 8:40- the battle cruisers
felt a heavy shock as if struck by a mine
or torpedo. This was assumed to be a
vessel blowing up.

Vice Admiral Beatty reported that he
did not consider it desirable or proper
to engage the German battle fleet dur-
ing the dark hours, as the strategical
position made it appear certain he could
locate them at daylight under most
favorable circumstances.

TORPEDO BOAT ATTACK
Vice Admiral Jellicoe reports that, as
anticipated, the Germans appeared to
have relied much upon torpedo attacks,
which were favored by low visibility and
by the fact that the British were in the
position of a following or chasing fleet.
Of the large number of torpedoes ap-
parently fired only one took effect, and
this was upon the Marlborough, which
was able to continue in action. The ef-
forts of the Germans to keep out of ef-
fective gun range were aided, he says, by
weather ideal for that purpose. The
Germans made two separate destroyer
attacks. The first battle squadron at
11,000 yards administered severe pun-
ishment to battleships, battle cruisers,
and light cruisers. The fire of the Marl-
borough was particularly effective and
rapid. She commenced by firing seven
salvos at a ship of the Kaiser class,
and then engaged a cruiser and next a
battleship. The Marlborough was hit by
a torpedo at 6:54 P. M., and took a con-
siderable list to starboard, but reopened
fire at 7:03 at a cruiser. At 7:12 she
fired fourteen rapid salvos at a cruiser
of the Konig class, hitting her frequently
until she left the line.

During the action the range decreased
to 5,000 yards. The first battle squad-
ron received more of the enemy's fire
than the remainder of the fleet, except-
ing the fifth squadron. The Colossus
was hit, but not seriously.

The fourth squadron, led by the flag-
ship Iron Duke, engaged a squadron
consisting of the Konig and Kaiser
classes with battle cruisers and light
cruisers. The British fire was effec-
tive, although a mist rendered range-
taking difficult. The Iron Duke fired
on a battleship of the Konig class at

ADMIRAL JELLICOE'S REPORT OF BATTLE OF JUTLAND 937

QUEEN
ELIZABETHS

GERMAN
BATTLE CRUISERS

BRITISH BATTLE£RUISERS
("QUEEN MARY" ETC.) •

GERMAN

HIGH SEAS

FLEET

UNDER ADMIRAL BEATTY

CHART OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND, SHOWING APPROXIMATELY THE
COURSE OF EACH FLEET DURING THE ENGAGEMENT

12,000 yards. The hitting commenced
at the second salvo, and only ceased
when the target turned away. Other
ships of the squadron fired principally
at German ships as they appeared out
of the mist and several of the Ger-
man vessels were hit.

The second squadron under Admiral
Jerram engaged vessels of the Kaiser
or Konig classes and also a battle
cruiser, which apparently was severely
damaged. A squadron under the com-
mand of Rear Admiral Heath, with the
cruiser Duke of Edinburgh, acted as a
connecting link between the battle fleet
and the battle cruiser fleet, but did not
get into action.

NIGHT OPERATIONS

The German vessels were entirely out
of the fight at 9 o'clock, says the report.

The threat of destroyer attacks during
the rapidly approaching darkness made
it necessary to dispose of the fleet with
a view to its safety, while providing for
a renewal of action at daylight. Vice
Admiral Jellicoe manoeuvred the fleet so
as to remain between the Germans and
their bases, placing flotillas of destroyers
where they could protect the fleet and
attack the heavy German ships.

The British heavy ships were not
attacked during the night, but three
British destroyer flotillas delivered a
series of gallant and successful attacks,
causing heavy losses. The fourth flotilla,
under Captain Wintour, suffered severe
losses, including .the Tipperary. The
twelfth flotilla, under Captain Stirling,
attacked a squadron of six large vessels
of the Kaiser class, taking it by surprise

938 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

and firing many torpedoes. The second,
third, and fourth ships in the line were
hit and the third blew up. The destroyers
were under a heavy fire of German light
cruisers. Only the Onslaught received
material injuries. The Castor sank a
German destroyer at point-blank range.

The thirteenth flotilla, under Captain
Farie, was stationed astern of the battle
fleet. A large vessel crossed in the rear
of the flotilla after midnight at high
speed. Turning on her searchlights, she
fired heavily on the Petard and the Tur-
bulent, and the latter was disabled. The
Champion was engaged for a few min-
utes with four German destroyers, while
the Moresby fired a torpedo at a ship
of the Deutschland class and felt an
explosion.

SEARCHING FOR THE FOE

Concluding his account of the battle,
Vice Admiral Jellicoe wrote :

At daylight on the 1st of June the battle
fleet, being southward of Horn Reef, turned
northward in search of the enemy vessels
and for the purpose of collecting our own
cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers. The
visibility early on the first of June was three
to four miles less than on May 31, and the
torpedo boat destroyers, being out of visual
touch, did not rejoin the fleet until 9 A. M.
The British fleet remained in the proximity
of the battlefield and near the line of ap-
proach to the German ports until 11 A. M.,
in spite of the disadvantage of long
distances from fleet bases and the danger
incurred in waters adjacent to the enemy's
coasts from submarines and torpedo craft.

The enemy, however, made no sign, and I
was reluctantly compelled to the conclusion
that the High Sea Fleet .had returned into
port. Subsequent events proved this as-
sumption to have been correct. Our position
must have been known to the enemy, as at
4 A. M. the fleet engaged a Zeppelin about
five minutes, during which time she had am-
ple opportunity to note and subsequently re-
port the position and course of the British
fleet.

The waters from the latitude of Horn Reef
to the scene of action were thoroughly

searched and some survivors from the de-
stroyers Ardent, Fortune, and Tipperary
were picked up. The Sparrow Hawk, which
had been in collision, was no longer sea-
worthy and was sunk after the crew was
taken off. A large amount of wreckage was
seen, but no enemy ships, and at 1 :15, it
being evident that the German fleet had suc-
ceeded in returning to port, our course was
shaped for our bases, which were reached
without further incident on Friday, June 2.

The cruiser squadron was detached to
search for the Warrior, which had been
abandoned while in tow of the Engadine on
the way to the base, owing to bad weather
setting in and the vessel becoming unsea-
worthy. No trace of her was discovered, and
subsequent search by the light cruiser squad-
ron having failed to locate her, it was evi-
dent she had foundered.

The fleet was fueled, replenished its am-
munition, and at 9:30 P. M., on June 2, was
reported ready for further action.

Two estimates of the total tonnage lost
by the Germans in the Jutland battle
have been made by British officials. The
more conservative one, who included in
his list only vessels " seen to sink " and
based his estimate on the theory that the
battleships sunk were of the oldest dread-
nought type, gives the German tonnage
lost as 109,220, as compared with a Brit-
ish loss in tonnage of 112,350. He con-
cludes that the Germans lost two bat-
tleships of the dreadnought type of 18,-
900 tons each, one of the Deutschland
type of 13,200 tons, the battle cruiser
Liitzow of 28,000 tons, five cruisers of
the Rostock type, making a total of 24,500
tons for this type; six destroyers, aggre-
gating 4,920 tons, and one submarine of
800 tons.

The more liberal estimate places the
German loss at 117,220 tons, as follows:

One dreadnought of the Kronprinz
type, 25,480 tons; one of the Heligoland
type, 22,440 tons; battleship Pommern,
13,000 tons; battle cruiser Liitzow, 28,-
000 tons; five Restocks, aggregating 24,-
500 tons; destroyers aggregating 4,000
tons, and a submarine of 800 tons.

The Battle of Jutland Analyzed

By Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge

British Naval Veteran and Expert

TO my mind in general the engage-
ment shows highly distinguished
strategic conception, highly capa-
ble tactical leading, great readiness to
seize initiative, and admirable support of
their leaders by all ranks. It was a brill-
iant achievement for the British Navy.
To put the situation succinctly, it may be
said that before the battle the British
fleet at sea was divided into two parts,
one force under Sir David Beatty, and
the other, the battle fleet or main body,
under the Commander in Chief, Sir John
Jellicoe. This distribution of the ships
was the dominating factor in bringing
on the battle. Had the whole British
fleet been massed and close together, it is
more than likely that no battle would
have occurred at all. So with the British
fleet divided the Germans were encour-
aged to give battle with Beatty. Sir
David, determined to get them into a
fight, arranged the management of the
action so that he could draw them nearer
and nearer to Jellicoe's main body, which
was coming up in support* He thus
greatly shortened the interval between
the first collision and eventual participa-
tion in the action by Jellicoe's battleships.
Even to a layman it must be plain
that this was a tactical performance of
the highest merit. The tactical merit was
fully equaled by the dash and courage
with which Beatty entered into the fight
as he became aware that the whole
strength of the German High Sea Fleet
was soon to be on the scene. Jellicoe in
bringing up his main body manoeuvred
so as to get between the Germans and
the coast of Jutland, which practically
meant between them and their own
bases. This manoeuvre, with the enemy
not inclined to help you in it, must be
a difficult one, and the fact that it was
successfully executed in spite of the very
unfavorable effect of the misty weather,
which occasionally hid the enemy, raises
its merits still higher. The dash and
courage are shown in the British being

able to engineer this manoeuvre at all. It
drew on the German fleet until the dis-
tance between Beatty's fleet and the
main body of the British fleet was less —
considerably less — than that between the
German battle cruisers and their main
body before Beatty began the action.
That alone shows the effect of Beatty's
move in trying to hold the German fleet
in action.

In the early stages of .the battle
Beatty's force was considerably fur-
ther away from the main British fleet
than later on, owing to Beatty's rushing
so fast after the Germans. After Beatty
had got the Germans into the encounter
he was able to keep them fighting until
Jellicoe and his fleet arrived. When
Jellicoe got to the scene of action the
result of the battle was decided, for no
longer did the Germans want to wait.

Our main body not only came up in
time to take a decisive part in the battle,
but was for more than two hours in the
action. When one considers the distance
at which the main British fleet was from
Beatty's force in the early stages it is
important to realize that effective
strategy dictated that it was desirable
for us to avoid the appearance of being
in too great force, for had the enemy
known the British fleet was ready to
attack him in force he would have had
every reasonable excuse to go away,
without giving battle. Our only hope of
engaging him was to employ tactics that
would hide the real strength of our fight-
ing force.

A satisfactory thing about the whole
engagement, without going into minute
details, was that the naval materials
and appliances of today, which had not
been long enough in use to permit of
our knowing how they might be em-
ployed, were successfully handled and
proved almost free from breakdown.
The gunnery of the British fleet was the
more accurate of the two. This was
due not only to very thorough training,

940 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

but also to the cool and deliberate man-
ner in which the guns were fired. The
Germans, in the earlier stages of the
battle, fired more rapidly, but after their
early shots they showed no accuracy of
aim. As to the whole engagement,
after reading Admiral Jellicoe's report,
I can say unhesitatingly that it was
one of the most decisive the British ever
fought. In fact, there are only three
others, to my mind, which outvie it in
respect to strategy and final result.
These are Lord Hawkes's battle of Qui-
beron, Nelson's battle of the Nile, and
Nelson's Trafalgar.

Interesting evidence of the decisive
character of the victory is shown by the
fact that during the month of June the
British vessels which had been shut up
in the Baltic, since the beginning of the
war have been returning day after day
to British ports. This shows that the
Germans have less control than ever of
the seas.

The losses sustained by the British
fleet were not greater than experts ex-
pected they would be in modern naval
warfare for aji engagement of this char-
acter. In all sea fights in which there
has been vehement fighting the losses
have been considerable, and in the early
days of any particular kind of naval
material, such as the period in which we
are at this moment, the losses of ships
on both sides have been almost a regular
feature of battles. No one ever objected
to the brilliancy of Admiral Robert
Blake's performances because in the ac-
tion several of his ships were sunk.

To Admiral Bridge's clear summary
may be added the following extract from
an official statement issued by the Brit-
ish Government through its embassies:

Seen in its broadest aspect, the battle
stands out as a case of a tactical divis-
ion of the fleet, which had the effect of
bringing an unwilling enemy to battle.
Such a method of forcing an action was
obviously drastic and necessarily attend-
ed with a certain measure of risk. For
great ends, however, great risks must be

taken, and in this case the risk was far
less great than that which St. Vincent
accepted off Cadiz, and this division
fought unsupported the battle of the Nile,
the most complete and least debated of
all British victories. Then the two por-
tions of St. Vincent's fleet were divided
strategically, with no prospect of tactical
concentration for the battle.

In the present case there was only an
appearance of division. The battle fleet
was to the north and the battle cruiser
fleet to the south, but they formed, in
fact, one fleet, under a single command,
and were acting in combination with one
another. They were at the time actually
engaged in carrying on, as they had
been in the habit of doing periodically,
a combined sweep of the North Sea, and
Admiral Beatty's fleet was, in effect, the
observation or advance squadron.

[The statement then goes into a de-
scription of the battle, and concludes:]

It was a beaten and broken fleet that
escaped from the trap. Many of its units
had been lost; its gunnery had become
demoralized, and no one can blame its
discretion in making for home at its top-
most speed and leaving the British .fleet
once more in undisputed command of the
North Sea. For this, in a word, was the
result of the battle. What the enemy
hoped to achieve we cannot tell. What-
ever their efforts signified, it failed to
shake our hold upon the sea, and that is
what really matters.

We have fought many indecisive ac-
tions, but few in which the strategical
result was further beyond discussion,
few which have more fully freed us of all
fear of what the enemy fleet might be
able to accomplish. It is by such stand-
ards that history judges victories and
by such standards that the country cher-
ishes the memory of the men who pre-
pared and won them. Current opinion
will always prefer the test of compara-
tive losses.

Let these standards be applied, and
it will be found that the battle off Jut-
land will well hold its own against all
but a few of our most famous victories.

German Admiralty's Official Report of Battle

of the Skagerrak

The German Admiralty issued a report June 29 on the battle of the Skagerrak. In
consequence of the mail blockade, the full official document has not reached this country, but
the abstract printed below, which was officially furnished for transmission by wire, is com-
prehensive.

THE High Sea Fleet, consisting of
three battleship squadrons, five
battle cruisers, and a large num-
ber of small cruisers, with several
destroyer flotillas, was cruising in the
Skagerrak on May 31 for the purpose, as
on earlier occasions, of offering battle
to the British fleet. The vanguard of
small cruisers at 4:30 o'clock in the after-
noon (German time) suddenly encount-
ered ninety miles west of Hanstholm, (a
cape on the northwest coast of Jutland,)
a group of eight of the newest cruisers of
the Calliope class and fifteen or twenty
of the most modern destroyers.

While the German light forces and
the first cruiser squadron under Vice
Admiral Hipper were following the Brit-
ish, who were retiring northwestward,
the German battle cruisers sighted to
the westward Vice Admiral Beatty's
battle cruiser squadron of six ships, in-
cluding four of the Lion type and two
of the Indefatigable type. Beatty's
squadron developed a battle line on a
southeasterly course and Vice Admiral
Hipper formed his Mne ahead of the same
general course and approached for a
running fight. He opened fire at 5:49
o'clock in the afternoon with heavy ar-
tillery at a range of 13,000 meters
against the superior enemy. The weather
was clear and light, and the sea was light
with a northwest wind.

After about a quarter of an hour a
violent explosion occurred on the last
cruiser of the Indefatigable type. It was
caused by a heavy shell, and destroyed
the vessel.

About 6:20 o'clock in the afternoon
five warships of the Queen Elizabeth
type came from the west and joined the
British battle cruiser line, powerfully re-
inforcing with their fifteen-inch guns the
five British battle cruisers remaining
after 6:20 o'clock. To equalize this su-

periority Vice Admiral Hipper ordered
the destroyers to attack the enemy. The
British destroyers and small cruisers in-
terposed, and a bitter engagement at
close range ensued, in the course of which
a light cruiser participated.

The Germans lost two torpedo boats,
the crews of which were rescued by sis-
ter ships under a heavy fire. Two Brit-
ish destroyers were sunk by artillery,
and two others — the Nestor and Nomad —
remained on the scene in a crippled con-
dition. These later were destroyed by
the main fleet after German torpedo
boats had rescued all the survivors.

While this engagement was in prog-
ress a mighty explosion, caused by a
big shell, broke the Queen Mary, the
third ship in line, asunder at 6:30 o'clock.

Soon thereafter the German main
battleship fleet was sighted to the south-
ward, steering north. The hostile fast
squadrons thereupon turned northward,
closing the first part of the fight, which
lasted about an hour.

The British retired at high speed be-
fore the German fleet, which followed
closely. The German battle cruisers
continued the artillery combat with in-
creasing intensity, particularly with the
division of the vessels of the Queen
Elizabeth type, and in this the leading
German battleship division participated
intermittently. The hostile ships showed
a desire to run in a flat curve ahead of
the point of our line and to cross it.

At 7:45 o'clock in the evening British
small cruisers and destroyers launched an
attack against our battle cruisers, who
avoided the torpedoes by manoeuvring,
while the British battle cruisers retired
from the engagement, in which they did
not participate further as far as can be
established. Shortly thereafter a German
reconnoitring group, which was parrying
the destroyer attack, received an attack

942 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

from the northeast. The cruiser Wies-
baden was soon put out of action in this
attack. The German torpedo flotillas im-
mediately attacked the heavy ships.

Appearing shadow-like from the haze
bank to the northeast was made out a
long line of at least twenty-five battle-
ships, which at first sought a junction
with the British battle cruisers and those
of the Queen Elizabeth type on a north-
westerly to westerly course and then
turned on an easterly to a southeasterly
course.

With the advent of the British main
fleet, whose centre consisted of three
squadrons of eight battleships each,
with a fast division of three battle
cruisers of the Invincible type on the
northern end, and three of the newest
vessels of the Royal Sovereign class,
armed with fifteen-inch guns, at the
southern end, there began about 8
o'clock in the evening the third section
of the engagement, embracing the com-
bat between the main fleets.

Vice Admiral Scheer determined to
attack the British main fleet, which he
now recognized was completely assem-
bled and about doubly superior. The
German battleship squadrons, headed by
battle cruisers, steered first toward the
extensive haze bank to the northeast,
where the crippled cruiser Wiesbaden
was still receiving a heavy fire. Around
the Wiesbaden stubborn individual fights
under quickly changing conditions now
occurred.

The light enemy forces, supported by
an armored cruiser squadron of five
ships of the Minatour, Achilles, and Duke
of Edinburgh classes coming from the
northeast, were encountered and ap-
parently surprised on account of the de-
creasing visibility by our battle cruisers
and leading battleship division. The
squadron came under a violent and heavy
fire, by which the small cruisers De-
fense and Black Prince were sunk. The
cruiser Warrior regained its own line a
wreck and later sank. Another small
cruiser was damaged severely.

Two destroyers already had fallen
victims to the attack of German torpedo
boats against the leading British bat-
tleships and a small cruiser and two

destroyers were damaged. The German
battle cruisers and leading battleship
division had in these engagements come
under increased fire of the enemy's bat-
tleship squadron, which, shortly after 8
o'clock, could be made out in the haze
turning to the northeastward and finally
to the east. Germans observed, amid the
artillery combat and shelling of great
intensity, signs of the effect of good
shooting between 8:20 and 8:30 o'clock
particularly. Several officers on Ger-
man ships observed that a battleship of
the Queen Elizabeth class blew up under
conditions similar to that of the Queen
Mary. The Invincible sank after being
hit severely. A ship of the Iron Duke
class had earlier received a torpedo hit,
and one of the Queen Elizabeth class was
running around in a circle, its steering
apparatus apparently having been hit.

The Liitzow was hit by at least fifteen
heavy shells and was unable to maintain
its place in line. Vice Admiral Hipper,
therefore, transshipped to the Moltke on
a torpedo boat and under a heavy fire.
The Derfflinger meantime took the lead
temporarily. Parts of the German tor-
pedo flotilla attacked the enemy's main
fleet and heard detonations. In the ac-
tion the Germans lost a torpedo boat. An
enemy destroyer was seen in a sinking
condition, having been hit by a torpedo.

After the first violent onslaught into
the mass of the superior enemy the op-
ponents lost sight of each other in the
smoke by powder clouds. After a short
cessation in the artillery combat Vice Ad-
miral Scheer ordered a new attack by all
the available forces.

German battle cruisers, which with
several light cruisers and torpedo boats
again headed the line, encountered the
enemy soon after 9 o'clock and renewed
the heavy fire, which was answered by
them from the mist, and then by the
leading division of the main fleet. Ar-
mored cruisers now flung themselves in
a reckless onset at extreme speed against
the enemy line in order to cover the at-
tack of torpedo boats. They approached
the enemy line, although covered with
shot from 6,000 meters distance. Several
German torpedo flotillas dashed forward
to attack, delivered torpedoes, and re-

GERMAN ACCOUNT OF SKAGERRAK BATTLE

943

turned, despite the most severe counter-
fire, with the loss of only one boat. The
bitter artillery fight was again inter-
rupted, after this second violent on-
slaught, by the smoke from guns and
funnels.

Several torpedo flotillas, which were
ordered to attack somewhat later, found,
after penetrating the smoke cloud, that
the enemy fleet was no longer before
them; nor, when the fleet commander
again brought the German squadrons
upon the southerly and southwesterly
course, where the enemy was last seen,
£ould our opponents be found. Only
once more — shortly before 10:30 o'clock
— did the battle flare up. For a short
time in the late twilight German battle
cruisers sighted four enemy capital ships
to seaward and opened fire immediately.
As the two German battleship squadrons
attacked, the enemy turned and vanished
in the darkness. Older German light
cruisers of the fourth reconnoissance
group also were engaged with the older
enemy armored cruisers in a short fight.
This ended the day battle.

The German divisions, which, after
losing sight of the enemy, began. a night
cruise in a southerly direction, were at-
tacked until dawn by enemy light force
in rapid succession.

The attacks were favored by the gen-
eral strategic situation and the particu-
larly dark night.

The cruiser Frauenlob was injured
severely during the engagement of the

fourth reconnoissance group with a su-
perior cruiser force, and was lost from
sight.

One armored cruiser of the Cressy
class suddenly appeared close to a Ger-
man battleship and was shot into fire
after forty seconds, and sank in four
minutes.

The Florent, (?) Destroyer 60, (the
names were hard to dicipher in the
darkness and therefore were uncertain-
ly established,) and four destroyers — 3,
78, 06, and 27 — were destroyed by our
fire. One destroyer was cut in two by
the ram of a German battleship. Seven
destroyers, including the G-30, were hit
and severely damaged. These, includ-
ing the Tipperary and Turbulent, which,
after saving survivors, were left behind
in a sinking condition, drifted past our
line, some of them burning at the bow
or stern.

The tracks of countless torpedoes were
sighted by the German ships, but only
the Pommern (a battleship) fell an im-
mediate victim to a torpedo. The cruiser
Rostock was hit, but remained afloat. The
cruiser Elbing was damaged by a Ger-
man battleship during an unavoidable
manoeuvre. After vain endeavors to
keep the ship afloat the Elbing was
blown up, but only after her crew had
embarked on torpedo boats. A post tor-
pedo boat was struck by a mine laid by
the enemy.

[The report closes with a summary of
the German losses as already published.]

German Official Account, Based on Statements
of British Prisoners

A supplementary narrative of the bat-
tle of the Skagerrak, in the form of a
telegram based on statements of 177
British prisoners, was transmitted offi-
cially on June 20 by the German Admi-
ralty. The text is as follows:
ril HE British forces participating in the
I battle were the reconnoitring forces
under Vice Admiral Beatty and the
main body of the British Navy under
Admiral Jellicoe. The reconnoitring

forces comprised six battle cruisers —
the flagship Lion, the Queen Mary, the
Princess Royal, and the Tiger as the
first division, and the Indefatigable and
the flagship New Zealand as the second
division. The first division was com-
plete, but H. M. S. Australia of the sec-
ond division was absent for secret rea-
sons. Besides these ships, there were
under Beatty's command five swift bat-
tleships of the Queen Elizabeth type and

944 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

a large number of small modern cruis-
ers, the names of thirteen of which were
verified by each of the prisoners. There
were also two destroyer flotillas, com-
prising about forty destroyers, among
which were the most modern types.

The main body of the fleet engaged in
the battle was composed of three battle-
ship squadrons of from six to eight
dreadnoughts each, one special squadron
of three of the most modern battleships
of the Royal Sovereign type, one division
formed by the battle-cruisers Invincible,
Indomitable, and Inflexible, a squadron
of armored cruisers comprising six ships,
and at least ten small cruisers and four
flotillas of from eighty to one hundred
destroyers.

When Beatty sighted the German re-
connoitring forces to the east he formed
a middle line with his six battle cruisers
and turned southeast. The ships of the
Queen Elizabeth type also turned south-
east and attempted to join the battle
cruisers. Between 5 and 6 o'clock in the
afternoon the Germans opened fire at a
distance of about eighteen kilometers,
[approximately eleven miles.] Shortly
after 6 o'clock a huge explosion occurred
on board the Queen Mary, midships, on
the port side. Two othef explosions fol-
lowed, and the forward part of the ship
sank rapidly. At the fourth and most
severe explosion the entire ship sank.
This was the work of from only five to
ten minutes.

Scarcely had the Indefatigable arrived
on the scene of the accident when she was
also shaken by an explosion. The ship
capsized and sank so quickly that of the
fourteen men who were in the fighting
top only two were rescued. These two
are apparently the only survivors of the
Indefatigable's crew of about 1,000.
After the sinking of these two ships Ad-
miral Beatty signaled to the Thirteenth
British flotilla to attack the German bat-
tle cruisers. The order was understood
only by the nearest destroyers and was
regarded by several of the prisoners as a
desperate resort. In this attack the most
modern British destroyers, the Nestor
and the Nomad, were sunk. Their crews
were later rescued from rafts and life-
boats by German torpedo boats.

In the meanwhile, the ships of the
Queen Elizabeth type approached. The
distance between the British ships and
the German cruisers had diminished to
ten kilometers, [approximately six miles.]
The British battle cruisers steamed
northward at high speed and were soon
out of range. The Queen Elizabeth type
ships continued battle, turning north-
ward in order to "cut off the enemy," as
ordered by Beatty. Soon one of the Queen
Elizabeth type ships left the British line
with a heavy list. The prisoners state
expressly that it was the Warspite. The
wireless sent by the Turbulent that the
Warspite was sunk was intercepted by
about eight British destroyers.

The rescued prisoners disagree as to
the time of Admiral Jellicoe's arrival
with the main body of the fleet. Prison-
ers from Jellicoe's fleet state that they
were steaming southward in several col-
umns when they received Beatty's first
wireless transmitted by the small cruiser
Galatea. Thereupon Jellicoe gave the or-
der to continue southward at top speed.
The prisoners saw only the flames from
Beatty's artillery when Jellicoe turned
lorth and formed a line toward the north-
west and west. The battle cruisers of
the main body, the Invincible, the Indom-
itable, and the Inflexible, were ahead
with the armored cruisers. At this time
the British battleship Marlborough was
hit by a torpedo which is said to have
been fired by a submarine. If so, the
submarine must have been British, since
there were no German submarines in the
battle.

A British armored cruiser attacked a
large isolated German ship which steered
slowly southward. At the same time the
British main body opened fire. When the
armored cruisers returned to the main
body, the Defense was missing. By this
time the Warrior had large holes mid-
ships just above the waterline. Shortly
after the British main body entered the
battle a German shot set fire to the In-
vincible, an explosion followed, and the
ship sank. The Germans shot at long
range and annihilated the destroyer
Acasta, standing near the head of the
line. The reports of other prisoners about
the movements of the British main body

STATEMENTS OF BRITISH PRISONERS

945

until dark conflict. The point on which
they agree is that at dark the British
Navy steered northward in columns. The
destroyer Tipperary asked permission to
turn southward alone to attack the Ger-
mans. Permission was granted, but she
encountered the German flotilla and was
defeated and sunk. The survivors were
rescued by the Germans. Beatty's thir-
teenth flotilla had failed to join the bat-
tle cruisers and turned southward at
dark. It encountered several large ships
which it mistook for British. The Ger-
mans opened fire and destroyed the Tur-

bulent. All the officers and a part of
the crew were lost. The survivors were
rescued by German torpedo boats.

Almost all the British prisoners ex-
pressed dissatisfaction at the fact that
the British made no effort to rescue
them, although almost all the best Brit-
ish ships participated in the battle. The
survivors of the Queen Mary and of the
Indefatigable had been in the water for
almost four hours before they were res-
cued by the Germans. They had already
given up all hope, for nothing had been
seen of the British ships for hours.

Vivid Story of an Eyewitness

By a British Naval Officer

AT 3:45 on May 31 action stations
were sounded off by the buglers,
and this was the first indication
vouchsafed to us that anything out of
the common was about to take place.
Accordingly we all dashed off to our
posts, because " action " is only sounded
off when there is more or less of an
emergency; thus it behooves one to get
to one's place as soon as possible. When
we were closed up and reported correct
the news came through that a light
cruiser* had sighted two destroyers and
some smoke to the eastward, and was
in pursuit. So we who were not in the
know thought that possibly we might
see a Hun light cruiser and no more.

Then suddenly we got the report,
" Enemy in sight," and I think every
one's heart gave a jump. At last, after
all these months of weary waiting and
preparation, were we going to get a
look in at the be-all and end-all of o*ur
existence — action with the German fleet ?
However, there was not much time to
think, for the orders came through quick
enough now. The guns were loaded, and
then round trained the turret on to our
first target, a small light cruiser nearer
to us than is healthy for such craft.
"Fire!" an eternity — and then, bang,
and away goes our first salvo. The
shots fell near the enemy, but she scut-
tled away. We let her have another

salvo, then ceased fire, and turned our
attention to bigger game that was
now within range — the German battle
cruisers.

We, the fast battleships, were, as has
already been stated, astern of the battle
cruisers and had opened fire between ten
and twenty minutes of their first shots.
Now we all of us got going hard, the
battle cruisers and ourselves against the
German battle cruisers and the German
High Sea Fleet, which had now put in an
appearance. So, in spite of the stories
of the Germans, they were most un-
doubtedly considerably superior to the
British force present, and remained so
until the arrival of the Grand Fleet some
hours later, and yet, in spite of this over-
whelming superiority, they only suc-
ceeded at this stage of the battle in sink-
ing two of our big ships at a huge cost
to themselves, because there can be little
doubt that up to then they got as good as
they gave and a bit more.

The firing now became very general
indeed, and the continued roar and shriek
of our own guns, coupled with one's
work, left little opportunity to think
about outside matters. The only pre-
dominant thing I, in common with others,
remember was the rapid bang, bang,
bang of our smaller secondary arma-
ment, as we thought; but during a lull
we discovered that this was the German

946 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

shell bursting on the water all round the
ship with so loud an explosion that it
could be heard right deep down in the
heart of the ship. We were at this time
receiving a very heavy fire indeed, our
own battle cruisers having become disen-
gaged for twenty minutes to half an
hour, so that the fire of the whole Ger-
man fleet was concentrated on us. How-
ever, we stuck it, and gave back a good
deal, I fancy.

Especially unpleasant, though, was a
period of half an hour during which we
were unable to see the enemy, while they
could see us most clearly. Thus we were
unable to fire a shot and had to rest con-
tent with steaming through a tornado
of shell fire without loosing off a gun,
which was somewhat trying. However,
about 6:30 the sun silhouetted up the
Germans and completely turned the
tables as far as light was concerned, and
for a period of some twenty minutes we
gave them a most terrific dressing down
which we trust they will remember. Then
down came the mist again, and we had
to close them right down to four miles
in the attempt to see the enemy, and four
miles is, of course, about as near as one
likes to get to the foe, as torpedoes then
come into play.

It was at this stage that, owing to
some temporary defect, the Warspite's
helm jammed, and she went straight at
the enemy into a hell of fire. She looked
a most wonderful sight, every gun firing
for all it was worth in reply. Luckily
she got under control quickly and re-
turned to the line, and it was this in-
cident that gave rise to the German
legend that she had been sunk.

The action continued with unabated
fury until the arrival of the Grand Fleet
somewhere about 7. It was just before
this that the Invincible had met her fate,
as also the Defense and Black Prince —
the two latter, apparently, in a gallant
attempt to save the Warrior, which was
successful in so far that the crew of
the Warrior were saved, although the
ship had eventually to be abandoned.

The arrival of the Grand Fleet relieved

the tension upon us somewhat, and the
battle cruiser force went on ahead, while
we dropped back, content to let the
Grand Fleet finish off the work, but the
Germans were not " having any," as they
say in America, and almost immediately
turned to run, pursued by our fleet. We
were, of course, considerably superior
now, but it was little use. For about
half an hour the Grand Fleet and our-
selves were firing, during which time
it is pretty certain that we inflicted very
material damage on the enemy, but after
that the failing light and the very evident
desire of the enemy to get away from
such unpleasant company rendered it im-
possible to turn an undoubted success
into a certain and decisive victory, for
by that the navy means annihilation.

And at last, about 9, we discontinued
the action, but continued to follow them.
Right through the darkness there were
constant destroyer attacks, and the sky
was lighted up the whole night by the
flashes of the guns and by fires caused
among the enemy by our shells. It was
in fact a very awe-inspiring sight.

As is known, the enemy succeeded in
attacking the Marlborough, but fruit-
lessly, as she returned to port, and is
no doubt once more at sea.

We continued to cruise about all night
and the next day, offering battle to the
enemy, but they were scuttling back to
security, and we saw nothing of them,
and so finally returned home, the battle
cruisers and ourselves content that we
had been able to attack and hold the
German fleet, though we were so inferior
in numbers, until our Grand Fleet could
join issue with the enemy; and our battle
fleet, well satisfied that they at last,
after twenty-two months' dreary waiting,
had in the end got near enough to give
the Germans a taste of our metal. But
of course our contentment was clouded
by the disappointment that the German
fleet had escaped its doom by a chain of
circumstances beyond our control. Please
Heaven that if, and when, they come
again they will not go back, and one
more menace to our peace will be de-
stroyed.

Naval Losses of Britain and Germany

By Archibald Hurd

Naval Expert of The London Telegraph

E battle of Jutland marks a stage
in the naval war; for some time
nothing will be seen of the High
Seas Fleet. The strategical victory of
the British fleet became apparent as
soon as it was known that the enemy
had fled back to port. With each day
that passes the material victory is being
revealed in its true light. The Admiralty
made no secret of our losses; they were
immediately announced. The Germans,
anxious to produce psychological effects
at home and abroad, determined on a
policy of concealment.

The course of the disclosures as to the
fate of German ships merits examina-
tion:

First — It was admitted that " the small
cruiser Wiesbaden was sunk " and that
the Pommern — the character of that ship
not being mentioned — had also been de-
stroyed; the light cruiser Frauenlob was
" missing," with " some torpedo boats."
The rest of the High Seas Fleet, it was
declared, " had returned to our harbors."

Second — It had to be confessed by the
Germans that the light cruiser Elbing
had been sunk, because neutrals had res-
cued some of the crew.

Third — A week after the return of the
High Seas Fleet to its bases a statement
was issued to the effect that " one battle
cruiser, (the Liitzow,) one ship of the
line of older construction, (the Pom-
mern,) four smaller cruisers," (the Wies-
baden, Elbing, Frauenlob, and Rostock,)
and " five torpedo boats " (really de-
stroyers) represented " the total loss."

Fourth — It is now known that the bat-
tle cruiser SeydMtz was run ashore to
save her from sinking; she is practically
a wreck, and useless for months, if not
forever, but has been got into port. It
is asserted by travelers who have re-
turned to Amsterdam that the battle
cruiser Derff linger sank " on being
towed into Wilhelmshaven," and it is re-
ported from Copenhagen that the Pom-
mern was not the battleship which was

torpedoed in the Baltic by a British sub-
marine in July last, but a new battle
cruiser which, after that battleship had
disappeared, was named, for territorial
reasons, after the German State, thus
perpetuating its association with the
navy. The story of the sinking of
the dreadnought battleship Ostfriesland
awaits confirmation.

It will be seen that considerable
progress has been made since the Ger-
mans, having raced back to port in con-
fusion, chased by Admiral Jellicoe, put
into circulation the story of their " vic-
tory," without waiting to count their
losses.

It is certain that the truth as to the
injury suffered by the enemy has not
yet been revealed. But sufficient is
known to indicate that the reduction of
the size of his fleet has been great, par-
ticularly if the relative standing of the
two navies be remembered.

It may be of some interest to con-
sider what have been the losses suffered
on both sides of the North Sea since the
war opened on Aug. 4, 1914, if we accept
Germany's own assessment of the dam-
age which was inflicted on her on May 31.
We are justified in making two correc-
tions in the German official declarations
on the evidence now available; the Pom-
mern was a new battle cruiser, sister of
the Liitzow, being the vessel of that type
of the 1914 programme, and the Seyd-
litz, for all present purposes, may be re-
garded as no longer effective, if, indeed,
she can be repaired during the course of
the war. Either she or the Derfflinger
may be put down as definitely lost.

Of course, British officers and men are
convinced by their eyes, as well as their
acts, that a number of other German
ships, including at least one battleship of
the Kaiser class, and possibly two, as
well as two or more battle cruisers, will
never fly the Prussian naval ensign
again. But on that matter we shall not
be wrong in awaiting Admiral Sir John

948 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Jellicoe's dispatch before attempting to
reach any definite conclusion, though
personally I am sanguine. For our pres-
ent purpose let the amended German ad-
missions— two battle cruisers, the Lut-
zow and Pommern, and four light cruis-
ers— be accepted in making a calculation
as to the relative progress of attrition.
On that basis, what has been the re-
duction of effective naval strength so
far only as capital ships and cruisers are
concerned ? The ships that count most in
all fleets today are those belonging to
what is generally described as the
dreadnought era. The dreadnought bat-
tleship and battle cruiser, apart from
their armament and armor, are remark-
able for the advance of speed, due to the
introduction of the marine turbine — all
honor to the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons,
the inventor. The increase of speed in
the capital ship reacted on smaller
cruisers; in fact, a fresh impetus was
given to the improvement of all classes
of vessels by the investigations of Lord
Fisher's Designs Committee in 1904. We
gained a lead, and other nations have
followed our example. So we may first
set out the ships of the dreadnought era
(displacements in parentheses) which
have been lost in the war, the statistics
being based on official admissions :

BATTLESHIPS

BRITAIN- GERMANY

Nil. Nil.

BATTLE CRUISERS

Tons. Tons.

Invincible (17,250) *Goeben (22,640)

Indefatigable.. (18,750) Pommern (28,000)

Queen Mary.. . (27,000) Llitzow (28,000)

fBliicher (15,500)

— JSeydlitz (24,600)

Totals.. 3 of (63,000) 5 of (118,740)

*The Goeben is ineffective in the Sea of

Marmora. fThe Blucher was a contemporary

of the Invincible. JThe Seydlitz is probably

as good as destroyed.

LIGHT CRUISERS

Tons. Tons

Amphion (3,440) Karlsruhe (4,822)

Arethusa (3,560) Magdeberg (4,478)

Koln (4,280)

Mainz (4,280)

Emden (3,598)

Dresden (3,396)

Konigsberg ...(3,348)

Nurnberg (3,396)

Leipzig (3,200)

Rostock (4,820)

Wiesbaden .... (5,600)
Elbing . ., (4,300)

Totals. . .2 of (7,000) 12 of (45,238)

The above statements show that Ger-

many's losses in the most modern and
effective ships — even if she fared no
worse than she declares in the battle of
Jutland — have been far heavier actually
than ours since the war opened. But the
real significance is only extracted from
the figures, if they be considered on a
proportionate basis. Ignoring the 1914-
15 shipbuilding programs of England
and Germany, about the carrying out of
which there may be some doubt, the posi-
tion in dreadnought battleships and bat-
tle cruisers built and building was on the
outbreak of war as under:

BATTLESHIPS

BRITAIN GERMANY

35, of 818,100 tons 19, of 450,250 tons

BATTLE CRUISERS
10, of 215,800 tons 8 of 186,120 tons

Totals. .45 of 1,033,900 tons 27 of 636,370 tons
Consequently, while on this showing we
have lost 6.6 per cent, of our strength in
battleships and battle cruisers, Germany
is the weaker by 18.5 per cent, of hers.
In other words, her proportionate loss
has been nearly three times as great as
ours.

What is the position as to light cruis-
ers which may be regarded as belonging
to the dreadnought period? We pos-
sessed thirty-eight, and Germany twen-
ty-seven. In the course of the war we
have lost one of these, as well as the
Amphion, slightly older; Germany has
been robbed of twelve. On that basis our
loss has amounted to 5.2 per cent., while
the enemy has been weakened by nearly
45 per cent.

But both fleets have sustained other
losses of good ships belonging to the
years immediately preceding the dread-
nought era — vessels which were still ef-
fective. I have endeavored to prepare a
list of such losses in the following table,
taking as a basis predreadnought ves-
sels not older than fifteen years, and
thus excluding ships belonging to the
last century. Any such arbitrary rule is
apt to be misleading, but a line must be
drawn somewhere. So we may rule
out ships of the predreadnought era
launched before 1900. We must include
in German losses the battleship Pom-
mern, sunk in the Baltic last July:

NAVAL LOSSES OF BRITAIN AND GERMANY

949

BATTLESHIPS
BRITAIN GERMANY

Tons. Tons.

King Edward Pommern (12,977)

VII (16,350)

Triumph (11,955) —

Russell (14,000) —

Totals.. 3 of (42,305)
ARMORED
Tons.

Natal (13,550)

Argyll (10,850)

Good Hope.... (14,100)
Monmouth ...( 9,800)

Defense (14,600)

Warrior (13,550)

Black Prince. .(13,550)
Hampshire . . . (10,850)

1 of (12,977)
CRUISERS

Tons.
Scharnhorst. . . (11,420)

Gneisenau (11,420)

Yorck ( 9,350)

Friedr'h Karl.( 8,858)
Pr'z Adalbert.( 8,858)

Totals. 8 of (100,850) 5 of (49,806)

LIGHT CRUISERS

Tons. Tons.

Pathfinder (2,940) Bremen (3,200)

— Undine (2,672)

Ariadne (2,618)

Totals... 1 of (2,940) 3 of (8,490)

That appears to be a far less satis-
factory statement than the earlier one.
How does it appear on a percentage
basis ? In the years 1900-5 we laid down
sixteen battleships (predreadnoughts)
to Germany's fourteen, so that our loss
has been much greater actually and rela-
tively than Germany's. But, on the other
hand, we had a very large reserve of
slightly older vessels, of which more must
be said later on, and we initiated the
building of dreadnoughts a year before
Germany. Turning to armored cruisers,
we began in the same period twenty-
three, while Germany put in hand only
six. Both navies have been much weak-
ened, ours by eight vessels and the Ger-
mans by five. But while our proportion-
ate reduction has been only 34 per cent.,
in the case of Germany it has been about
83 per cent. In light cruisers of the older
types she has also come off worst.

It is in the matter of the yet older
ships that we have received the greatest
injury, and that fact is due largely,
though not entirely, to the Dardanelles
operations. Of battleships belonging to
the last century, there have gone the
Bulwark, {launched 1899,) Formidable,
(1898,) Irresistible, (1898,)— three ships
we could ill spare — Ocean, (1898,) Go-
liath, (1898,) and Majestic, (1895,) and
we have also had to deplore the Aboukir,
Hogue, and Cressy of the armored
classes, as well as the Hermes, Hawke,
and Pegaaus. But, tin spite of all that has

happened, we possess today thirty-one
predreadnought battleships to Ger-
many's nineteen, and twenty-three ar-
mored cruisers to one really effective
ship of that type — the Roon — in the Ger-
man fleet, though, let it be added, Ger-
many has two obsolescent vessels — the
Fiirst Bismarck and Prinz Heinrich.

During every day of the war — a period
of 678 days — the British Navy has been
commanding the seas. It has been ex-
posed to the enemy's submarines and to
the vicissitudes of weather. It has been
compelled to take risks. On the other
hand, the German fleet has surrendered
all the advantages flowing from the
command of the ocean communications
of the world. We have been drawing
for ourselves, as well as the Allies, fresh
military strength from the seas; at the
same time, by denying their use to the
enemy, we have weakened him.

There is no gain without loss. We have
had to regret not so much ships, though
many have been destroyed, as officers
and men. That is the item in the war
ledger that is full of sadness. We can,
however, contemplate the depletion of
material with equanimity. It is demon-
strated by the figures that have been
quoted that in men-of-war of the latest
construction and the greatest efficiency
we possess today a larger margin of
strength than we possessed when the
war opened. Our superiority must be
considered, not in the light of the actual
number of effective ships destroyed, but
in relation to our relative strength when
the war opened. That examination shows
what proportion of the original modern
fleet still remains for the protection of
British interests. The position is consol-
ing. For obvious reasons the additions
which have since been made to the Brit-
ish forces cannot be taken into account,
and therefore the revelation of our stand-
ing is, in fact, less gratifying than ir
would appear were it possible to deal
wifti the matter in all its fullness.

But one fact emerges from this con-
sideration of the naval position. Despite
Germany's " victory " of May 31 we hold
the seas in greater force than at the be-
ginning of the war.

The Attack On the Petrolite

Story of the Events That Produced the Recent Peremptory
Note to Austria-Hungary

SECRETARY LANSING'S sharp
note of June 21 to the Austro-
Hungarian Government, demand-
ing redress for the attack upon
the American oil steamer Petrolite in
the Mediterranean on Dec. 5, 1915, has
an interesting story behind it, which has
not had its share of public attention. The
Petrolite, a tank steamer returning to
this country in ballast, was compelled to
furnish provisions to an Austrian subma-
rine after having been made the target
of twelve or fourteen explosive shells, at
least one of which struck the vessel,
damaging it and injuring a member of
the crew.

The first definite report of the event
came to the State Department through
the Navy Department in the following
telegram from Commander Blakely of
the United States Cruiser Des Moines.
The message had been sent from Canea,
Crete, on Dec. 6, and read as follows:

The Des Moines has received the following
radiogram from the American ship Petrolite,
bound from Alexandria, Egypt, for New
York: "Attacked by submarine this (Sun-
day) morning about 5:20 in latitude 32 de-
grees 35 minutes north, longitude 26 degrees
8 minutes east. One man wounded, not se-
riously. (Signed) Thompson, Master." In
answer to my inquiry I have received the
following information : " Submarine carried
Austrian flag. Officers said she looked like
a big cruiser. Man wounded by an exploding
shell. Petrolite belonged to Standard Oil
Company and was commissioned April 14,
1915. At the time she was attacked she was
about 350 miles west of Alexandria and just
southeast of the Island of Crete, distant
about 120 miles."

When the Petrolite reached Philadel-
phia on Jan. 16 the commanding officer,
Captain Thompson, filed a protest next
day at Washington, furnishing affidavits
to the effect that his vessel was shelled
after he had stopped the engines, and
that, when he refused to sell supplies, he
had been compelled to furnish them by
threats. According to Captain Thomp-
son he was in his cabin on the morning

of Dec. 5 when his second officer reported
the presence, about four miles astern, of
a submarine. The submarine began
firing just as the Captain reached the
deck. Immediately, he says, he gave the
order to stop, and swung the vessel
around broadside to let the submarine
know her identity. Still the firing con-
tinued. One shell exploded in the engine
room, severly injuring Larsen, a Danish
member of the crew. Captain Thomp-
son went out in a small boat to the sub-
marine, which was flying the Austrian
flag, and the commander of the under-
seas craft demanded provisions, declaring
that he would have to take them by force
if he did not get them by other means.
Captain Thompson says he was warned
that the Petrolite had better not try to
escape, and, as a guarantee that she would
not, the Austrian commander took off one
of the American sailors from the small
boat, threatening to shoot him if any at-
tempt were made to evade his demands.
The affidavit adds that when the sub-
marine commander was told that a mem-
ber of the Petrolite's crew had been
wounded he merely laughed.

The United States Government, after
a careful investigation of the evidence,
sent a brief note calling for a disavowal
of the Petrolite attack on the part of the
Austro-Hungarian Government. The lat-
ter sent an unsatisfactory reply, which
reached Secretary Lansing on Feb. 25.
Neither of these two notes has been
given to the public in full, but from semi-
official sources the gist of the Austrian
reply is ascertained to be as follows:

(1) That the commander of the Austrian
submarine fired on the Petrolite because he
thought the vessel was about to attack the
submarine, the assertion being made that the
submarine commander based this belief on
the statement in his report to the Viennese
Admiralty that the Petrolite changed her
course.

(2) That while the Petrolite flew the Amer-
ican flag the commander of the Austrian
submarine labored under the belief that the

THE ATTACK ON THE PETROLITE

9.51

vessel was an enemy tank ship flying the
American flag- " as a trick."

(3) That the Austrian submarine com-
mander reports that the Captain of the
Petrolite furnished the submarine with pro-
visions voluntarily and refused to accept pay
for them, and that the submarine did not
forcibly take provisions from the American
steamer.

After further investigation, the United
States Government has found the facts
to be widely at variance with the expla-
nation offered by the Vienna authorities,
and is compelled to regard the conduct of
the commander of the submarine in at-
tacking the Petrolite and in coercing the
Captain as a deliberate insult to the

American flag and an invasion of the
rights of American citizens. The Aus-
trian contention that the Petrolite's Cap-
tain voluntarily gave up supplies is flatly
contradicted in the American note of
June 21, printed in full below; likewise
the claims that warning shots were fired
across the Petrolite's bow before she was
shelled, and that her appearance was
such as to justify the submarine com-
mander in mistaking her for a cruiser.
The United States Government therefore
asks that an apology be made, that the
commander of the submarine be punished,
and that a suitable indemnity be paid for
injuries sustained.

American Note Demanding Redress for Austrian
Attack on the Petrolite

note of Feb. 25 from the Austro-
JL Hungarian Government, which at-
tempted to defend the submarine at-
tack of Dec. 5, 1915,' upon the American
steamer Petrolite, has been found unac-
ceptable by the United States Govern-
ment. The rejoinder takes the form of a
memorandum from Secretary of State
Lansing to Ambassador Penfield, the full
text of which follows :
f Department of State,

Washing-ton, June 21, 191(5.
Frederic Courtland Penfield, United States
Ambassador, Vienna:

Evidence obtained from the Captain and
members of the crew of the steamer Petrolite,
and from examination made of the vessel
under direction of the Navy Department, con-
vinces this Government that the Austro-Hun-
garian Government has obtained an incorrect
report of the attack on the steamer. With
particular reference to the explanation made
by the Foreign Office, the following informa-
tion, briefly stated, has been obtained from
sworn statements of the Captain and mem-
bers of the crew :

No shot was fired across the bow of the
steamer as a signal to stop. When the first
shot was fired the Captain was under the im-
pression that an explosion had taken place
in the engine room. Not until the second shot
was fired did the Captain and crew sight the
submarine, which was astern of the steamer,
and therefore they positively assert that
neither the first nor the second shot was fired
across the bow of the vessel.

The steamer did not swing around in a
course directed toward the submarine, as al-
leged in the report obtained by the Austro-
Hungarian Government, but the Captain at
once stopped the engines and swung the ves-
sel broadside to the submarine, and at right
angles to the course of the vessel, in order to
show its neutral markings, which was mani-
festly the reasonable and proper course to
follow, and it ceased to make any headway.
On the steamer was painted its name in let-
ters ^approximately six feet long, and the
name of the hailing port, and, as has pre-
viously been made known to the Austro-Hun-
garian Government, the steamer carried two
large flags some distance above the waterline,
which, it is positively stated by the officers
and crew, were flying before the first shot
was fired, and were not hoisted after the first
shot, as stated by the submarine commander.

The submarine commander admits that the
steamer stopped her engines. The Captain of
the Petrolite denies that the vessel was ever
headed toward the submarine, and the exami-
nation of the steamer made by an American
naval constructor corroborates this statement,
because, as he states, the shell which took
effect on the vessel, striking the deck house,
which surrounds the smokestack, was fired
from a point forty-five degrees on the star-
board bow. This was one of the last shots
fired and indicates that the ship was not
headed toward the submarine even up to the
time when the submarine ceased firing. The
Captain states that the submarine appeared
to be manoeuvring so as to direct her shots
from ahead "of the steamer. The submarine
fired approximately twelve shots. The ma-
jority of the shots were fired after the ship

952 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

had stopped and had swung broadside, and
while, as even the commander of the sub-
marine admits, the steamer was flying the
American flag. The Captain of the steamer de-
nies that he- advised the commander of the
submarine that the damage to the steamer
was insignificant. He states that he advised
him that the steamer had been damaged, but
that he had not had an opportunity to ascer-
tain the extent of the damage. The seaman
who was struck by a fragment of shell sus-
tained severe flesh wounds.

If the ship had intended to ram the sub-
marine, she would not have stopped her en-
gines, and this must have been evident to the
submarine commander. Naval authorities
agree that there could have been no danger of
the ship ramming the submarine until it was
headed straight for the submarine and was
under power, and even then the submarine
could have so manoeuvred as to avoid col-
lision. The Petrolite was two miles away
from the submarine. The engines and funnel
of the Petrolite were at the stern, and from
the general appearance of the ship no experi-
enced naval officer could have believed that it
had opportunity or sufficient speed to attack,
even if it had been steaming directly toward
the submarine. The conduct of the submarine
commander showed lack of judgment, self-
control, or willful intent, amounting to utter
disregard of the rights of a neutral.

According to the sworn statements of the
Captain of the steamer and a seaman who ac-
companied him to the submarine, the com-
mander of the latter stated that he mistook
the steamer for a cruiser. This statement is
at variance with the statement in the Austro-
Hungarian Government's note that the Cap-
tain of the submarine asserted a false ma-
noevure on the part of the steamer prompted
the submarine to continue to fire.

The Captain of the steamer swears that he
informed the commander of the submarine
that he had only sufficient provisions to reach
the port of Algiers, and that he would deliver
provisions only under compulsion. He states
positively in his affidavit and in conversation
with officials of the department that he did
not give provisions readily, nor did he say it

was the duty of one seaman to help another,
and that he refused payment because he felt
that he was being compelled to deliver food
in violation of law.

The statement of the Captain of the Petro-
lite is entirely at variance with the report of
the submarine commander. The correctness
of the Captain's opinion that the wounded
seaman was held as a hostage to guarantee
the delivery of food seems clear. Obviously,
the commander of the submarine had no right
to order the seaman to remain on board. The
fact that this order, was given showed that
the commander insisted that food was to be
delivered to him, otherwise the seaman would
naturally have accompanied the Captain back
to his vessel. The outrageous conduct of the
submarine commander and all the circum-
stances of the attack on the Petrolite war-
ranted the Captain in regarding himself as
being compelled, in order to avoid further
violence, to deliver food to the commander of
the submarine.

In the absence of other and more satisfac-
tory explanation of the attack on the steamer
than that contained in the note addressed to
you by the Foreign Office, the Government of
the United States is compelled to regard the
conduct of the commander of the submarine
in attacking the Petrolite and in coercing the
Captain as a deliberate insult to the flag of
the United States and an invasion of the
rights of American citizens, for which this
Government requests that an apology be
made ; that the commander of the submarine
be punished ; and that reparation be made for
the injuries sustained by the payment of a
suitable indemnity.

Please communicate with Foreign Office in
sense of foregoing.

You may add that this Government believes
that the Austro-Hungarian Government will
promptly comply with these requests, in view
of their manifest justness and the high sense
of honor of that Government, which would
not, it is believed, permit an indignity to be
offered to the flag of a friendly power or
wrongs to its nationals by an Austro-Hun-
garian officer without making immediate and
ample amends. LANSING.

THE EUROPEAN WAR AS
SEEN BY CARTOONISTS

[German Cartoon]

The Holy War v ~

[A German artist's dream of a Mohammedan uprising against the British
in India and Egypt.]

953

[English Cartoons]

Troubles of the Crown Prince

THE KAISER SPIDER: " What! down again, Willie? Never mind — remember
King Robert Bruce 's spider! Try again!"

WILLIE: "Oh! strafe that Scottish spider! He only fell six or seven times!
I've been^ down sixty or seventy, and I get bumped worse each time! Why don't
you try it yourself?"

Wanted !

—From The Westminster Gazette.

THE AUSTRIAN EMPEROR: "7 want reinforcements!"
HINDENBURG: "/ want my Army Corps back!"
THE CROWN PRINCE: "7 want every man you can spare me!"
THE KAISER: "But where are they to come from?"

954

[Italian Cartoon]

Toward the Abyss

— From L'Asino, Rome.

THE KAISER TO His ALLY: "Forward! We are making progress."

955

[Russian Cartoon]

A World Bandit

— From the Mucha, Warsaic.
The Crown Prince Hohenrobber.

956

[German Cartoon]

British Profit Hunger

English statesmen never get enough on earth; so much the more certain
are they to get it in hell.

957

[French Cartoon]

German Arms

JTi

— © Le Rire, Paris.

Come, officer, give me your sword.'*

We have no sword, but I will pass you my bottle of vitriol.'

958

[English Cartoon]

Gott Strafe!

— From The Sketch, London.

HANS (ivalching the enemy through the trench periscope, and hailing them) :
"Vot vos you?"

THE ENEMY : " Munsters."

FRITZ: "Monsters! Gott in Himmel! Vot vos ve up against now?"

959

[Hungarian Cartoon]

Let Joy Be Unconfined

— From Borszem Janko.
Dance, children, dance till you fall; I am not weary."

[French Cartoon]

In Galicia

The Latest Joy Ride of the Cossacks.
960

— © Le Rire, Paris.

[German Cartoon]

The Horn of Plenty

— By T: T. He.ine of Munich.
But the Flood It Pours Over the Earth Is Red.

961

[Australian Cartoon]

The Injured Innocent

" Germany is a peace-loving nation and never did desire war." — German Chancellor's
Reichstag Speech.

— From The Sydney Bulletin.
Can't yer SEE what a peace-loving man I am?"

962

[German Cartoon]

"The Lying-Slander Traffic"

" So long as England's cables are intact she can still send her chief article
of export all over the world as usual."

963

r, Q

964

ctf

1 «

£ J

fo -M

torn

I
5

•**

a E
| '*

-^ W

|
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965

[English Cartoon]

The Home Run

[French Cartoon]

Austrian Tactics

— From London Opinion.

The game will be finished on the stroke
of the hour.

FIRST SOLDIER : " I believe we are de-
camping."

SECOND SOLDIER: "Be quiet! It's a ma-
noeuvre which the official bulletins call
' breaking .contact.' "

[Spanish Cartoon]

A Conceded Claim

[Italian Cartoon]

Overworked

— From L'Esquella, Barcelona.

"Every German, you may be sure
worth three men of any other nation."
" Certainly ! Especially at meal time.'

— From the Hondo Umoristico, Milan.

" And you, Baroness, what have you
done for the Red Cross?"

" I have taken part in ten benefit balls,
three theatricals, and a grand reception with
illuminations."

[English Cartoon]

King of the World

m
I

I :

The Only Ruler Whose New Conquests Are Undisputed.

9C7

[English Cartoons]

Kitchener of Khartum

After the Jutland Fight

— From The Westminster Gazette.

THE GERMAN: " Why don't you go aivay? I licked you!"
THE BRITISH BULLDOG: "Licked me! You mean you escaped by running
away. If you think you licked me, why don't you come out?"

968

[Dutch Cartoon]

Secret Diplomacy

—By Louis Raemaekers.
Planning the First Moves in the Great War.

969

[Italian Cartoon]

The Battle of Jutland

[Russian Cartoon ]

Before Verdun

— From Fischietto, Twin.

" "Wilhelm demands the trident, and he
most certainly got it."

— From the Mucha, late of Warsaw, now of
Moscow.

THE GERMAN PEOPLE : " Hi ! You up
there. I can't carry this thing much longer."

[French Cartoon]

Ail Irrefutable Argument

— From Lc Matin, Paris.

FRANCIS JOSEPH: "William has not sent
me a telegram on our strategic withdrawal
from the Italian front."

ARCHDUKE EUGENE: "It was difficult
for him to felicitate us * * * '

FRANCIS JOSEPH: "Why shouldn't he?
I congratulated him on his naval battle."

[Australian Cartoon]

The Blossom of Victory

— From The Sydney Bulletin.
WILHELM: (pulling the petals): " Dis
year, negst year, zumtimes, nevair."

970

[English Cartoon]

'<Der Tag"

— Raemaekers in Land and Water, London.
ADMIRAL WILHELM : " Thank God, the Day is over."

971

[American Cartoon]

Music Hath Charms

.!? H f I

V%},| ? H*

S£NOR( WHIL
\ GET SOME-
O.OTHFS C

-From The Baltimore Aine.ican,

A Substitute for Preparedness.
972

Progress of the War

Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events

From June 12 Up to and Including

July 11, 1916

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE

June 12— Germans make unsuccessful assaults
on Thiaumont.

June 13— Canadian troops recapture lost Brit-
ish positions southeast of Zillebeke ; Ger-
mans take trenches west of Thiaumont.

June 16— French check German assaults on
Hill 320 and Hill 321 and at southern edge
of the Caillette Wood.

June 17— French take the offensive in the
Vaux region and carry part of German
trenches north of Hill 321.

June 18— Germans repulsed at Dead Man Hill.

June 21 — Germans make new drive near
Rheims.

June 22 — Germans capture new first-line
trenches between Fumini Wood and Che-
nois, in the Fort Vaux sector.

June 24— Germans gain a foothold in Fleury.

June 26-28— British begin heavy offensive
against German lines along the entire
front ; Germans launch an attack in the
Champagne district.

June 30— French recapture Thiaumont work.

July 1— British and French troops begin great
offensive in the Somme River region and
smash seven miles of the enemy's line,
taking two towns and 2,000 prisoners.

July 2— British occupy Fricourt, on the
Somme ; French capture Curlu and Frise ;
continued deadlock on Verdun front.

July 3 — French capture five towns on the way
to Peronne ; French lose Damloup work,
near Vaux, but retake it.

July 4.— Germans reinforce lines on the
Somme front; French take two villages
near Assevillers; struggle for La Bois-
selle ; French again lose Thiaumont work.

July 5— French carry second German lines
from the Clery-Maricourt road to the
Somme and cut the railway to Chaulnes.

July 6— British in new offensive crush Ger-
man lines from Thiepval southward and
eastward to Contalmaison.

July 8— French capture Hardecourt and Ma-
melon ; British gain footing in wood east
of Montauban and tighten grip on
Ovillers.

July 9— French troops south of the Somme
sweep forward on two and one-half-mile
front and capture Biaches.

July 10— French take Hill 97, overlooking
Peronne ; Germans enter Trones Wood,
but British advance east of Ovillers and
La Boissette.

July 11— British carry their line into Contal-
maison ; Germans gain footing in Damloup
battery, at Verdun.

CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE

June 12— Russians capture Dobronovtze, ten
miles northeast of Czernowitz.

June 13— Terrific battle around Tarnopol ; Aus-
trains relinquish Torgovitsa fortifications.

June 14— Russians advance along the lower
Stripa, force the Dniester at several
points, advance along the Zale-Szczky-
Kolomea railway, and attack Hinden-
burg's line north of Pinsk.

June 16— Russians dislodge Austrians on the
River Bluichevka between Kozin and
Tarnovka.

June 17— Russians separate the three main
Austrian army groups operating between
the Pripet and Bukowina ; Czernowitz in
ruins.

June 18— Russian Army enters Czernowitz;
Germans routed on the Styr.

June 20— Austrians check Russian drive be-
tween Lutsk and Kovel ; Russians advance
on the southern flank toward Kolomea
and Halich.

June 22— German lines from France take over
defense of the Kovel-Lutsk region and
attack Russians in three groups.

June 25— Russians resume great offensive in
Volhynia.

June 26— Germans storm Russian positions
southwest of Sokul and take many pris-
oners.

June 30— Russians take Kolomea, pass the
mouth of the Stripa, and push westward ;
Germans in the north cross the Niemen.

July 1— Russians capture towns north and
south of Kolomea ; Germans report cap-
ture of Russian positions west of Kolki
and southwest of Sokul.

July 3 — Germans, reinforced, take offensive
north of Lutsk.

July 4 — Russian cavalry patrols cross the
Carpathians and enter Hungary; Prince
Leopold's line broken near Baranovichi.

July 5 — Russians cut railroad in Galicia be-
tween Dalatyn and Korosniezo and rout
General Bothmer's army south of the
Dniester.

july 7 — Russians begin tremendous offensive
on the Riga front; Bothmer's army
flanked out of Galician positions between
the Stripa and Zlota Rivers.

July ll — Russians drive forward toward
fortresses of Vladimir- Volynski.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

June 12 — Italians advance in the Assa Val-
ley, the Pasubio sector, and along the
Posina-Astico line.

974 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

June 13 — Italians capture strong Austrian

line in the Lagarina Valley.
June 16 — Austrians repulsed on the Asiago

plateau between Monte Pari and Monte

Lemerle.
June 17 — Italians carry Austrian positions of

Malga, Fossetta, and Monte Magari, be-
tween the Frenzela Valley and Marcesina.
June 23 — Italians push Austrians back in the

Assa Valley and on the Asiago plateau.
June 24 — Italians advance in the Pasubio

sector in the Trentino.
June 27 — Italians take Arsiero and continue

advance between the Adige and the

Brenta.
June 28 — Italians capture Monte Giamondo,

north? of Fusine, and Monte Caviojo.
June 29 — Italians storm Fort Mattasone and

carry the ridge of Monte Trappola in the

Arsa Valley.
June 30 — Italians in the Arsa Valley occupy

the Val Morbia lines and the southern

slope of Monte Spil.
July 2 — Italians begin attack on Austrian

fortified positions between Zugna Totya

and Foppiano, in the Trentino.
July 5 — Italians occupy summit of Monte

Corno and capture the crest of Monte

Sellugion, in the Trentino.
July 9 — Italians advance in the Molino Basin

and toward Forni.
jujy 10 — Italians win a valley in the Tofane

region.

ASIA MINOR AND EGYPT

June 14 — British repulsed in attempt to ad-
vance on the right bank of the Tigris,
near Felahie ; Persian volunteers annihi-
late a British detachment in the Euphrates
sector.

June 16 — Turks occupy village of Serpoul, in
the direction of Bagdad.

June . 17 — British forces attempting to cross
the lower Euphrates River near Korna are
driven back by the Turks.

June 23-24 — Turks capture Paitak Pass, on
the Mesopotamian front.

June 27 — Russians defeated in attack east of
Servil, in Persia.

July 1 — Russians defeated in Persia between
Kerind and Harunabad, on the road to
Kermanshah.

July 2 — Russians capture chain of mountains
east of Plantana from the Turks.

July 5 — Turks recapture Kermanshah.

July 6 — Russians fall back eighty miles in the
Bagdad region.

July 8 — Russians repulsed in the Caucasus
north of Tchoruk with heavy losses.

July 9 — Russians occupy railroad station at
Delatyn, west of Kolomea, in the south,
Gulevitchi and Kachova in the north, and
cross the Stokhod River at Ugli.

AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

June 13 — British forces reach Makuyuni in
East Africa and capture German islands

of Ukerewe ; Belgians control the entire
northwest.

June 16 — British occupy village of Kiliman-
jaro ; Portuguese repulse German attack
on post of Namaka.

July 1 — Germans ejected from Ubena centre
east of the Livingstone Mountains and
driven northward.

NAVAL RECORD

Russian warships in the Baltic Sea sank two
German steamers of small torpedo type,
an auxiliary cruiser, and several mer-
chantmen. The German steamer Dorita
was destroyed by a Russian submarine.

In the war zone, six British ships, one Nor-
wegian, one Swedish, one Spanish, two
French, one Danish, and twenty Italian
ships have been sunk.'

Teutonic submarines have been active in the
Mediterranean. The Italian steamer Le
Provedita, the French ships Herault and
Ville de Madrid, the British ship Cardiff,
and one Japanese ship have been sunk,
and the Greek steamer Nilsa attacked.

In the Black Sea the Turkish cruisers Yawuz
Sultan Selim and Midullu, formerly the
Goeben and the Breslau, sank four Rus-
sian transports and several sailing vessels
off the Caucasus coast and bombarded the
harbor works. Allied fleets bombarded
the southern coast of Bulgaria from Porto
Lagos to Dedeaghatch. Russian torpedo
boats destroyed fifty-four enemy sailing
vessels. The Russian hospital ship Vper-
iode was sunk by an enemy submarine.

MISCELLANEOUS

On July 8 the Entente Allies issued a formal
notice of abandonment of the Declaration
of London and proclaimed a new decree
concerning blockade regulations and con-
traband.

The Greek Government accepted in their en-
tirety the demands of the Entente powers,
promising complete demobilization of the
army, immediate formation of a non-
political Cabinet, dissolution of the Cham-
ber, followed by new elections, and re-
placement of objectionable police func-
tionaries. The Skouloudis Cabinet re-
signed and a new Ministry was formed
with- Zaimis at the head. The Allies
raised the blockade of Greek ports.

An uprising against the Turks occurred in
Arabia. The rebels captured Mecca, Jed-
dah, and Taif.

The United States Government has sent a
second note to Austria concerning the
submarine attack on the Standard Oil
tanker Petrolite.

The German submarine Deutschland crossed
the Atlantic in safety and reached the
port of Baltimore on July 9 with a $1,-
000,000 cargo of dyestuffs. United States
customs and naval officials found her to
be an unarmed, peaceful merchant ship.

BATTLING AMID ETERNAL SNOWS

Austrian Shelter Huts Among the Dolomite Alps, Illustrating the
Difficulties of the Present Italian Offensive.
(Photo from Underwood & Underwood.)

PAOLO BOSELLI

Italy's New Prime Minister, Who Succeeds Salandra, and Who Is An

Eminent Professor, Lawyer, and Oldest Member of the Italian Parliament.

(Photo from Central News Bureau.)

PERIOD XXIV.

The Fall of Gorizia — Fight for Bapaume and Peronne — The Battle of
Galicia — The British Trade Blacklist — Shooting of Captain Fryatt —
Japan and the United States — A Bayonet Charge in Picardy — Brit-
ain's Tribute to Belgium — The Allies of the Future — Vitality of France
— Italy's Campaign in the High Alps. — Review of Recent Naval Battles.

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

THE ALLIES MORE CONFIDENT

THE progress of the war in the month
since the last issue of CURRENT
HISTORY confirms the conclusion then
reached that the end of the conflict is
not definitely in sight. Elsewhere ap-
pears a symposium of the views of the
official spokesmen of the belligerent
nations issued at the end of the war's
second year. The one thing upon which
they all agree is an inexorable resolution
to continue the struggle relentlessly
until one or the other is vanquished. It
is guerre a I'outrance.

The fighting in August was, if any-
thing, fiercer and bloodier than at any
previous time, with the advantage on the
side of the Allies. It is now evident that
Austria is pressed for reserves and that
her troops have lost their dash. The
Germans still have fresh reserves from
no man knows where; they are full of
spirit, defiant, and as dauntless as any
troops Germany has sent forth, but she
has now met foes who are equal in equip-
ment and munitions, and who surpass
her in numbers; she has been compelled
steadily, even if slowly and stubbornly,
to give way in France and along the
Russian border. The Russians are mak-
ing very slow progress in Asia Minor,
but the Turks have met another serious
check in their campaign against the Suez
Canal. The Germans have clearly lost
their initiative at Verdun and are losing
some of their gains in that region, while
the Italians are driving the Austrians not
only from the positions they gained in
the Spring, but, by the capture of Gorizia,
seem to have their grip now on all of
Istria, including Trieste.

[V... VIII.. P. 975.]

Talk of peace is heard in Germany,
but the Allies frown upon the suggestion,
believing that Germany has passed her
zenith and that her collapse is only a
question of time. Prophecies as to the
time yet required to win the war, at the
present rate of progress by the Allies,
range from one to three years, but some
firmly believe that there will be no san-
guinary battles after the snow flies and
that peace pourparlers will be in progress
before the Winter ends.
* * *

TEUTON GAINS AND LOSSES
A T the end of the second year the
**• Teuton Powers occupied 20,450
square miles of French and Belgian ter-
ritory, 88,000 square miles of Russian,
and 25,000 square miles of Serbian.
In the second year they added no
French or Belgian conquests; on the con-
trary, they lost a hundred or more square
miles late in July, and are losing a little
more each day. Their losses in Russia
have been considerable, though they
added 30,000 square miles in 1915-16.
The Turkish losses in Asia Minor have
been several thousand square miles, and
the Austrian losses in Italy have very
greatly exceeded their previous gains.
Germany has lost practically all her
colonial possessions.

The Central Empires to date have lost
in killed, missing, wounded, and prisoners
about 5,125,000, and are spending at least
$40,000,000 a day in defensive operations.
The Allies' casualties in the 24% months
of war exceed 6,000,000, and they are
spending in actual warfare over $60,000,-
000 a day. The sea is closed to the Ger-
mans, the blockade is tighter than be-

976

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

fore, and the food question is a serious
problem in the Central Empires. There
seems to be a recrudescence of subma-
rine activity and a developing possibility
that Germany may resume her previous
policy of sinking merchant vessels with-
out warning, in which event an open
break with the United States would be
possible.

The Allies in mid- August seemed about
to launch their offensive against Bul-
garia from Saloniki, and it is believed
Bulgaria will not resist whole-heartedly.
There is a story that Bulgaria may yet
renounce her alliance with Germany and
Austria, in which event it is believed that
Rumania would join the Entente. Should
this occur, the collapse of the Turkish
defense would speedily follow and the
end come in sight.

* * *

PURCHASE OF DANISH ISLANDS

A TREATY has been agreed to by
the Danish and United States Gov-
ernments for the sale of the small
islands owned by Denmark in the West
Indies — St. Thomas, St. John, and Santa
Cruz — to the United States for the sum
of $25,000,000. The treaty has been
ratified by the lower house of the Danish
Parliament, subject to a popular vote of
approval. Opposition has developed in
the upper house among the Conservatives,
who oppose the sale on general princi-
ples. In the American Senate also there
is some opposition because the price is
regarded as excessive. The total area
in acres of the three islands is about
90,000, one-third not tillable. The pop-
ulation in 1901 was 30,527 — 98 per cent,
negroes— against 38,000 in 1860; there
are only about 600 whites, nearly all
Danes. The imports of the islands ag-
gregate about $1,500,000 a year, of
which the United States furnishes about
50 per cent.

Our civil war developed the necessity
of a naval base and harbor of refuge in
the West Indies, and in 1865 negotiations
were opened for the purchase of these
islands from Denmark. The matter
dragged along, and the United States
Senate finally rejected the treaty, but
in 1892 negotiations were resumed and

the subject has been alive ever since.
Fourteen years ago Denmark was will-
ing to take about $5,000,000 for the
islands. Since the acquisition of Porto
Rico, which is only twenty-six miles
away, the necessity for a naval base in
the West Indies has been met, but the
harbor at San Juan does not admit the
heaviest dreadnoughts, while Charjotte-
Amalie, the port of St. Thomas, is sit-
uated on one of the finest natural har-
bors in the world. It is felt that this
harbor should be in our possession, es-
pecially since the construction of the
Panama Canal.

President Wilson favors the purchase
at the price offered, as do Senator Stone,
the Democratic Chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, and Senator Lodge,
the ranking Republican member of the
committee; but the feeling is growing
that the price is exorbitant and the
treaty may fail to receive the necessary
two-thirds vote.

JAPAN'S GROWING POPULATION

THE first census of Japan was taken
in 1643, following the anti-Christian
riots. Christianity had been strictly pro-
hibited and the enumeration was ordered
to confirm the religious faith of the peo-
ple. The total is not given, but in 1721
another census was taken, and the total
return of population was 26,065,425.
Thereafter a census was taken at ir-
regular intervals, which showed very
little change in the total in 100 years,
remaining slightly in excess of 26,000,-
000, exclusive of the Samurai and other
ruling classes. When the country was
opened to foreign intercourse a system
of vital statistics was established, and
in 1873 the official census showed a popu-
lation of 33,300,694. A census was or-
dered to be taken every six years by a
law of 1871, with births added and deaths
substracted.

In 1874 the population had reached
33,625,646, and now began a rapid in-
crease at an accelerating ratio. By 1879
it was 35,768,547; in 1888 it was 39,607,-
234; in 1898, 43,763,855; in 1908, 49,-
588,804; in 1913, 53,356,788. The increase
in the five-year periods shows an in-

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

977

creasing ratio, being about 8 per cent,
between 1908 and 1913. Japan has 361
persons to the square mile; the United
States, 27 2-3; France, 191; Germany,
311 ; the United Kingdom, 376.
* * *

BRITAIN'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM UNDER

FIRE

T ORD HALDANE exposed an amaz-
•" ing state of affairs in the British
educational system in a recent speech in
Parliament, which created a profound
sensation' and may lead to a complete re-
form of English educational methods
after the war. He stated that out of
2,750,000 boys and girls between the ages
of 12 and 16 in England 1,450,000 get no
education after they reach 13, and only
250,000 go to school after 14 years of
age. He stated that 5,350,000 boys and
girls in England and Wales between the
ages of 16 and 25 get no education at
all, only 93,000 get a full-time course, and
390,000 a part-time course at evening
schools. The discussion grew out of the
proposed trade combinations after the
war, and moved Lord Haldane to suggest
that, to maintain trade primacy, wider
skill and technique in scientific, chemical,
and engineering subjects were prerequi-
sites. These could be obtained only by a
complete reorganization of educational
methods. He cited the fact that there
were only 1,500 trained chemists in Eng-
land, whereas four German chemical
firms alone which had played havoc with
British trade employed 1,000 chemists.
He also called attention to the prodigious
wastage of fuel and by-products sufficient
in value to pay interest on nearly three
billion dollars, due to insufficiency of
industrial experts in the country.

The questions raised precipitated a
discussion in the House of Lords, in
which some of the leading intellectuals
participated, among them Earl Cromer,
the Bishop of Winchester, Viscount
Bryce, the Bishop of Ely, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Earl Curzon, the Arch-
bishop of York, and others. The discus-
sion developed into a debate as to the
relative importance of classical and
scientific education. Earl Cromer said
the "total moral collapse of Germany

was one of the most extraordinary and
most tragic events recorded in history/'
and he could not help feeling " that one
of the causes of that deterioration of
character was that the atmosphere cre-
ated by humanistic study had lost its
hold on German public opinion. The
whole national mind of Germany had
apparently become materialized." The
Bishop of Winchester also referred to
the " painful efficiency " of Germany
and warned the country not to neglect
the humanistic and classical studies.
Viscount Bryce thought that the German
habit of obedience had cost them much
of " initiative, independence of spirit,
and free individuality." He believed the
fault in England was lack of interest on
the part of parents in the progress of
their boys' studies, and that there was
need to make the teacher's career more
effective. He said if there were more
demand for experts in England they
would be found, but England did not yet
appreciate, as did Germany and the
United States, the important effects of
the application of science to industry.

The discussion brought such acute
criticism on the educational system that
Arthur Henderson, the Minister of Edu-
cation, resigned his portfolio, 'though he
still remains in the Cabinet. A com-
mission will be appointed to take up the
subject. In the debates the peers fre-
quently referred to America, and held
that there had been a change in this
country, humanistic education being at
present not to so great an extent subordi-
nated to scientific or materialistic study
as formerly.

* * *

PROSPERITY THROUGH WAR

SOME noted economists are predicting
a period of unexampled prosperity in
Europe after the war. They argue that
millions of men will have been killed or
incapacitated for work, and that there
will be such shortage in the labor market
to replace the billions of structures de-
stroyed that wages will rapidly advance
and prosperity proportionately prevail.
Statistics prove that active work with
labor in demand at high wa°res invariably
produces good times among the masses.

978

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

In fact, the war itself is having a most
appreciable affect on pauperism, proving
again the thesis that unemployed are
not unemployable. Walter Long, Presi-
dent of the British Local Government
Board, reports that the number of pau-
pers in England decreased 100,000 be-
tween 1914 and 1915; pauperism in Lon-
don declined 20 per cent., vagrancy in
England and Wales, 662-3 per cent.; the
number of homeless people sleeping out
in London had fallen from 431 in Feb-
ruary, 1913, to 44 in March, 1916. The
conclusion is unavoidable that unemploy-
ment is mainly the effect of ill-organized
industry, with its concomitants of drink,
crime, pauperism, and destitution, but
with the industrial organization keyed
up by military rigor and efficiency the
residuum of the idlers and wasters is
sucked up and the whole social fabric
practically regenerated.
* * *

AMERICAN DEFENSE
E House and Senate have agreed
upon the American Defense Pro-
gram; it is the heaviest naval budget in
history and the largest army program in
our annals. The total defense program
agreed upon requires $661,418,000, $110,-
000,000 to be available at once for the
navy. The regular army and National
Guard are reorganized, bringing the
enlisted peace strength of the army to
187/)00, which can be expanded by Exec-
utive call to 220,000; Federalizing the
National Guard would also add 450,000
men at war strength.

For maintenance of the reorganized
army and militia and supplies and equip-
ment Congress appropriated $267,597,000.
More than $13,000,000 of this is for de-
velopment of aeronautics, $11,000,000 for
Government plants for the manufacture
of armor plate. The Army bill also car-
ried an appropriation of $20,000,000 for
a Government plant to produce nitrate
for use in manufacturing munitions.

Provision was made for extension and
improvement of the coast defenses with
appropriations aggregating $25,748,050.
To furnish needed officers in the army
and the navy the personnel of the Naval
and Military Academies was enlarged,

Battleships

Battle cruisers
Scout cruisers
Destroyers . . .

the former to 1,760 and the latter to
1,152. For the Military Academy a spe-
cial appropriation of $1,225,000 was
made, the fund for Annapolis being car-
ried in the Naval Appropriation bill.

Congress also provided for the creation
of a Council for National Defense, com-
posed of Cabinet officials and citizen
experts to co-ordinate the military, in-
dustrial, and natural resources of the
country in time of war.

In the Navy bill the President is
authorized, in the event of emergency,
to increase the strength of the navy to
87,000 enlisted men. A Senate amend-
ment providing for 6,000 apprentice sea-
men, in lieu of 3,500 proposed in the
House bill, was approved.

The building program for the navy as
fixed by the Senate and concurred in by
the House is as follows:

Senate.

1st Yr. 3 Yrs.

4 10

4 6

4 10

20 50

*Coast submarines 27 58

Fuel ships 3 3

Repair ship 1 1

Transport 1 1

Hospital ship 1 1

Destroyer tenders 2 2

Fleet submarines 9 9

Ammunition ships 2 2

Gunboats 2 2

*In addition, the Senate bill authorizes one
submarine to be equipped with the Neff sys-
tem of submarine propulsion and to cost,
exclusive of armor and armament, $250,000.
* * *

MASS FEEDING IN GERMANY
rPHE City of Berlin recently began
J- erecting enormous public dining
halls in order to solve the food problem
by communal feeding. One kitchen con-
tains sixty-three boilers which hold 50,-
000 pints of food, and hundreds of women
are employed in the cooking. The kitchen
is in the centre and the eating rooms ex-
tend from it in two enormous wings. Po-
tato and meat cutting machines are op-
erated by electricity, and motor conveyors
carry the food from the principal kitch-
ens to the subordinate kitchens, where
food is served from noon until 4 P. M.,
the following being the bill of fare : Mon-
day, rice and potatoes; Tuesday, meat;

WORLD EVENTS OF THE MONTH

979

Wednesday, beans and fat; Thursday,
meat and macaroni; Friday, beans and
potatoes; Saturday, cabbage and mashed
potatoes; Sunday, goulash (minced meat)
and potatoes. A portion equal to about
one and one-half pints is sold for 8 cents.
Public dining halls of this kind are
now operated in Hamburg, Frankfurt,
Berlin, and Leipsic, and will be gen-
erally introduced; it is understood that
Berlin is preparing to provide at least
400,000 pints of food per day, but it' is
claimed that the food problem has been
so well solved that the public dining halls
may be abandoned.

* * *

TN the year ending June 30, 1916, the
•*• merchant shipping cleared from the
ports of the United States showed a ton-
nage of 25,500,000, of which 23,000,000
was foreign; the previous high record
was 24,800,000 tons in the year ending
June 30, 1914. It should be remembered
that this increase is in the face of the
German blockade, the closing of the
Black Sea, and the withdrawal of all
Austrian and German ships from Ameri-
can trade. United States shipping to
South American ports in the year in-
creased nearly 500 per cent, and to Eu-
rope nearly 250 per cent. Argentina re-
ceived 190,000 tons of American shipping
in the year, against 5,000 in the year end-
ing June 30, 1914, and Colombia 100,000
tons, as against 285 tons in 1914.

* * *

fTIHE British War Office has promul-
-*• gated an order stating that " No
person shall from the date of this Or-
der, until further notice, buy, sell, or
deal in. raw wool grown or to be grown
on sheep in Great Britain or Ireland dur-
ing the season 1916." The French Gov-
ernment has commandeered at fixed
prices all wool in France and Algiers.

* * *

E stupendous costs of the war are
shown in the comprehensive tables of
the war loans of each of the belligerents
as set forth in detailed figures in this
issue. Great Britain's twelfth vote of
credit was authorized Aug. 24, 1916.
Its amount was $2,250,000,000, bringing
the total sum voted by Great Britain for
the war between August, 1914, and Au-

gust, 1916, up to $14,160,000,000. The
total domestic, civil, and war expendi-
ture of the United Kingdom is now $30,-
000,000 a day, which includes large sums
spent in the acquisition of American se-
curities to be used as a credit against lia-
bilities to our country. The average daily
expenditure of Great Britain for the war
remains at about $25,000,000.

* * *

E income tax in Great Britain for
the current year is in some instances
more than five times what it was prior
to the war. Its operations are best illus-
trated by the following examples : On an
income of $2,500 before the war it was
$65; in the current year it is $255. On
an income of $5,000 a year it has risen
from $140 before the war to $695. An
income of $25,000 was taxed $1,310 be-
fore the war; the tax in 1916-17 is $7,510.
An income of $500,000 was assessed for
taxes in 1913-14 $62,290; in 1916-17 it is
assessed $285,645 — over 50 per cent. If
the $500,000 income is liable also for the
excess profits tax the total tax collected
will be $300,000, or 60 per cent.

* * *

THE hanging of the body of Signer
Battisti, ex-Deputy for Trent in the
Austrian Reichsrat, by Austrians at ,
Trent, after he had been taken as a
wounded prisoner of war at the head of
his Italian troops, has caused intense in-
dignation throughout Italy. Battisti was
an ardent irredentist in the Austrian
House, and when Italy declared war
he joined his native Trentinos under
the Italian flag. It is reported that he
killed himself rather than be captured by
the Austrians, and that his corpse was
hanged on a gibbet at Trent. The Ger-
mans and Austrians liken his case to
Casement's.

* * *

"GANGLAND is gasping because Winston
-L-J Churchill is being paid $5,000 for
four articles which he is contributing to
The London Sunday Pictorial, but in con-
sequence of heavily advertising these
articles the circulation of The Pictorial
jumped 400,000 in two weeks and is now
approximately 2,500,000, the most widely
circulated^ weekly in the world. The
articles are not long and the rate of pay-

980 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ment is no larger than has been made by
some American weeklies; it is consider-
ably below the price reported paid to
former President Roosevelt for his maga-
zine contributions.

Mr. Churchill says Great Britain could
not possibly have prevented the war; he
maintains that Emperor William " defi-
nitely decreed the terms of the Serbian
ultimatum and at that time had already
resolved to launch his armies."

riREAT BRITAIN has arranged
^JT through a syndicate of American
bankers a $250,000,000 loan, secured by
$300,000,000 collateral securities, $100,-

000,000 being American, an equal amount
Canadian, and a third bonds and securi-
ties of Argentina, Chile, Norway, Swe-
den, Switzerland, Denmark, and Holland.
The loan will be covered by two-year 5
per cent, notes, to be sold at 99; the pro-
ceeds will be expended in the. United
States to take up maturing loans. The
French recently borrowed $100,000,000
for a three-year period. This, with the
Anglo-French joint loan of $500,000,000
makes a total of $850,000,000 loaned the
two nations by the United States within
twelve months. It is estimated that
$1,500,000,000 American securities have
drifted back to this country since the war
began.

Interpretations of World Events

Why the Big Push Drags
TT\ WO very significant pronouncements,
•*• made within the last few days, shed
a great deal of light on the comparative
slowness of the allied offensive on the
Somme. «The first comes from the
French General Malleterre, who, after
fighting brilliantly in the earlier battles
in Belgium and Northern France, has
written brilliantly of the later incidents
and strategy of the war. General Malle-
terre recurs to a point he made a few
weeks ago — that the conditions of a
great successful offensive must include
three elements — a material preponder-
ance, a moral mastery, and closely co-
ordinated action. Co-ordination, he says,
is at last being reached by the Entente
Powers, with the result that the shuttle
strategy — the rapid transfer of troops
between east and west which, as Bern-
hardi and Jagow clearly showed, was
the fundamental principle of the German
Great General Staff — has been rendered
impossible. With the Entente Powers
successfully attacking in France, on the
Isonzo, in Armenia and Galicia, the
Central Empires must strain every nerve
merely to hold each front with the
troops there; they cannot be moved
without extreme peril to the weakened
sector. Moral ascendency was decisively
won, he adds, before Verdun, where the

mightiest effort the German Army ever
made was broken against the rock of
French valor; at Erzerum; at Lutsk.
There remains the third element — de-
cided material preponderance. British
and French artillery have shown aston-
ishing power on the Somme, and to
this power the German Generals have
very fully subscribed. But the declara-
tions of Sir Samuel Montagu, the Brit-
ish Minister of Munitions, and of his
French colleague, M. Albert Thomas,
make it clear that both nations expect
to double, perhaps treble, their weight
of guns in the next few months. We
may therefore accept the conclusion
which he has just put forward — that
the " big push," effective as it undoubt-
edly is, will be followed by a still bigger
push a few months hence, a push which
the Allies expect to end the war.

General Kuropatkin Goes to Turkestan

WHILE on the Teuton side Archduke
Friedrich, who originally faced
the Russian drive, was superseded by
General von Linsingen, and Linsingen has
now been superseded, as to the chief
command, by Field Marshal von Hin-
denburg, there has been but one change
in the opposing Russian command, and
no change in the command on the south-
ern front. And, in passing, it is in-

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

981

teresting to record the captures made
by the four Generals who are operating
under General Brusiloff, as they have
just been published by the Russian Gen-
eral Staff. For the period from June
4, when Brusiloff's drive began, to Aug.
12, the figures are, beginning at the
north: General Kaledin, 109,509 offi-
cers and men; General Sakharoff,
89,215; General Stcherbatchoff, 57,016;
General Letchitski, 102,717. Thus the
total captures made by the Czar's forces
in nine weeks were over 358,000 men and
officers, besides 405 cannon, 1,326 ma-
chine guns, 338 mine and bomb throw-
ers, and 292 powder carts. The one
change in the Russian command has
been the transfer of General Kuropatkin
to Turkestan, where he goes as Gov-
ernor. For this transfer there are
probably two reasons — the first is, that
General Ruzski, who has twice been
withdrawn from the front to undergo
an operation, is now sufficiently re-
covere~d~^to resume command of the
Riga-Dwinsk sector, which Kuropatkin
held temporarily; the more important
reason is that no man in the Russian
Empire knows the whole Central Asian
region — and this now includes Northern
"Persia — better than does Kuropatkin.
For ten years he was Governor of the
transcaspian region, whence he was
called to the War Ministry at Petrograd,
where he was when the Russo-Japanese
war began. Kuropatkin also knows Per-
sia well. General Ruzski, who goes back
to the Riga-Dwinsk sector, also fought
in the Russo-Turkish war, and saw
service in Manchuria. At the beginning
of the war he was head of the Kieff
military district, and commanded the
army which marched on Lemberg in the
Autumn of 1914.

General Smuts in German East Africa
p 3NERAL JAN CHRISTIAN SMUTS
^J who, when the war began, was
Minister of Defense of the Union of
South Africa, is now writing " lastly "
across the last protectorate of Germany's
extensive colonial empire. This is, in
reality, a much more arduous task than
that so incisively performed by General
Louis Botha, the Prime Minister of the

South African Union, in the first months
of the war, in the conquest of German
Southwest Africa. For the latter pro-
tectorate, while it has an enormous area,
322,450 square miles, is sparsely popu-
lated— one inhabitant to each four square
miles — or 80,000 in all, and a great part
is open desert. Not only is German East
Africa considerably larger, having 384,-
000 square miles, (as compared with 208,-
780 square miles for the German Empire
in Europe,) but it has a population just
a hundred times larger than the former
colony, namely, 8,000,000, and much of
the country, both along the coast and
among the giant mountains in the north,
is densely wooded, and therefore very
difficult country to fight an offensive
campaign in. When the war began there
were 4,000 Germans in the East African
protectorate, a large proportion of whom
formed a defensive force, while at least
40,000 natives had been trained and en-
rolled as a fighting force. Against these
black troops, in their native forests, Gen-
eral Smuts has been fighting, with Bel-
gian aid from the Congo and Portuguese
help from Mozambique, and has been
constantly tightening the line drawn
around them. But the work is hard,
since the Germans had covered the whole
area of the protectorate with a system
of intrenched forts, abundantly supplied
with munitions and connected by wire-
less stations with her other African colo-
nies and by relay (?) with her European
territories. Everything was in readiness
for the expected war, as is conclusively
shown by the fact that, after two years'
fighting, the German forces and their
black auxiliaries are still well supplied
with ammunition, though for the whole
period they have been cut off by the
British fleet from their home base.

The War and the Temporal Power
of the Pope

"TvURING the war of 1866, which re-
J-^ stored the province of Venice to
Italy, Austria — supported in this policy
by Napoleon III. — steadily resisted the
desire of the new Italy to make Rome
the capital of the nation. This preserved
to the Popes the " temporal power," or
power, as temporal sovereigns, over the

982 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Papal States, which, until 1860, had had
an area of some 16,000 square miles,
(about twice the size of Massachusetts,)
with a population of 3,000,000. When the
Franco-Prussian war broke out, in 1870,
Napoleon withdrew his troops from
Rome, and that city, with what remained
of the Papal States, was incorporated in
the Kingdom of Italy. The Vatican and
Lateran palaces, with their gardens and
the villa of Castel Gandolfo, were guaran-
teed in perpetual possession to the
Popes; within these palaces they retain
a technical sovereignty. But there has
remained, in the Vatican, the unrelin-
quished claim to the temporal power,
which would mean the severance of Rome
from the Kingdom of Italy; it ceasing to
be the Italian capital; the reconstitution
of the Papal States as a temporal sover-
eignty.

In theory at least Austria has con-
sistently supported the claim of the
Vatican to temporal power; and Italian
publicists are making it clear that, at
the beginning of the war, both Austria
and Germany revived that claim, with the
hope, first, of winning the Vatican over
to the cause of the Central Empires, and,
through the Vatican, influencing Catholic
opinion throughout the world. There was
a second purpose — that of breaking the
unity of Italy along the old line of cleav-
age between the Vatican and the
Quirinal, the Church and the State. But,
say the Italian writers, both the bribes
proffered to the Vatican for its support
of the Central Empires have proved
vain. Cardinal Gasparri gave assurances
that the Vatican had no ambition to
triumph with the help of foreign
bayonets. Cardinal Ferrari, Archbishop
of Milan, placed his seminary at the dis-
posal of King Victor Emmanuel's troops.
Cardinal Bisleti, an intimate friend of
the Austrian Emperor, " burned his
Hapsburg bridges behind him." In their
own words, the Italian Catholics
"laughed heartily at the Protestant
Germans, who in Germany defend Luther
and in Turkey Mohammed, when they
saw them suddenly become the advocates
of the temporal power of the Pope." The
Italian Catholics declare that the war has
separated them from Austria and Ger-

many, but has brought them closer to
France and Belgium.

The culmination of this patriotic Ital-
ian movement has just been reported
from Rome, in the announcement that the
Sovereign Pontiff has directed the Italian
Cardinals (30 out of 62 members of the
Sacred College) " to pray for the success
of Italy and her allies." The effects of
this decision are likely to be momentous.
On the one hand, it imposes on the Catho-
lic Emperor Franz Josef, and on the
Catholic Kings of Saxony and Bavaria, a
penalty which is little short of excom-
munication— in some ways, much heavier
than excommunication; on the other, it
will do much to bridge the- chasm between
the Church and the State in Italy; to
make the Bishop of Rome the effective
head of a national Italian Church. It is
the first time, perhaps, in centuries, that
the See of Peter has taken so definite a
stand in a moral question which affects
the political life of all Christendom, and
it represents the final alignment on the
side of the Allies of a great force hither-
to neutral. Finally, it puts an end to
any possibility of intervention by the
Holy See with the purpose of securing
peace which might be detrimental to the
cause of the Entente Powers. The re-
sults of this decision are quite incal-
culable.

Trieste and the Austrian Fleet

WITHIN a few days after the fall of
Gorizia it was announced that the fleet
of Austria, which had been using the forti-
fied harbor of Trieste as its base, had de-
parted in the night for an unknown des-
tination. The Franco-British fleet, which
had been blockading Trieste, with Italian
aid, appears to have been caught napping,
and the Austrian ships seem to have
reached Pola, at the end of the Istrian
Peninsula, in safety. If Pola becomes
untenable there remains Fiume, further
east, and connected by rail direct with
Budapest, through Croatia. The Aus-
tro-Hungarian fleet — for, like the army,
it is held in common by both halves of
the Dual Monarchy — is far from a neg-
ligible factor. Powerful modern battle-
ships have been built, well-armed and
manned. Austria counts four dread-

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

983

noughts, built since 1910, and displacing
more than 20,000 tons; with six large and
six smaller pre-dreadnoughts, the larger
displacing from 10,600 to 14,500 tons,
(three of each class.) They have been
completely outclassed by the powerful
French battleships which, by arrange-
ment with Great Britain, are released
from the English Channel to do service in
the Mediterranean, France having a
number of super-dreadnoughts with guns
almost as heavy as those of England, and
English ships are co-operating with these
in blockading Austria. But one element
of the Austrian fleet has been exceeding-
ly active — the submarines, of which Aus-
tria had at the beginning of the war
about a dozen, and there have been re-
ports of German boats being sent by rail
and assembled at Trieste. Very probably
the activity of these Austrian subma-
rines, by making it impossible for the
French and English warships to wait off
Trieste, co-operated in effecting the just
recorded escape of the Austrian fleet.
Italy has a battle fleet of seven pre-dread-
noughts and six dreadnoughts, displacing
about 20,000 tons. Four super-dread-
noughts were laid down in 1914 to dis-
place 28,000 tons and to carry a main
armament of eight 15-inch guns, with a
speed of 25 knots. It may well be that
these four very powerful ships are al-
ready in commission. It is quite evident
that, should the Austrian fleet elect to
come out, there are in the Mediterranean
waters the materials for a very pretty
light.

Socialist Agitation for Peace

"DOTH neutral and belligerent Social-
J-* ists have in the past month mani-
fested a strong agitation for an early
peace. Representatives of six neutral
countries met at the International So-
cialist Conference at The Hague. A
peace program was elaborated by the
conference and unanimously adopted.
The complete re-establishment of the in-
dependence of Belgium and Poland, the
creation of a democratic federal union
of the Balkan States, and the solution
of the Alsace-Lorraine question through
a plebiscite among the inhabitants of
those provinces were the points agreed

upon by all the delegates to the confer-
ence. A resolution was passed condemn-
ing the proposed allied economic trade
war on the Central Powers, and another
resolution advocating the settlement of
international disputes through compul-
sory arbitration was adopted.

In Germany the Socialist National
Committee issued a manifesto in which
it states that the committee renewed its
appeal to the Imperial Chancellor to lift
the embargo on the discussion of peace
conditions. Speaking of the designs for
conquest credited throughout the world
to the German Government, the mani-
festo says that "the moment appears
to have arrived when the German peo-
ple should give its free and unrestricted
opinion regarding these plans of con-
quest, the realization of which would
be only the germ of new wars and only
result in prolonging the war." A uni-
versal agitation for the expression of
Germany's opinion on the subject is,
therefore, urged. In France sentiment
among the minority Socialists, favoring
the resumption of international Socialist
relations, has of late been markedly on
the increase. By a vote of 1,824 to 1,075
the National Council of French Socialists,
at its quarterly session held in Paris on
Aug. 7, decided not to resume interna-
tional relations.

The Greek Elections and Saloniki
TT is not difficult to trace a connection
•*• between the delay in the projected
allied drive from Saloniki and the com-
ing general elections in Greece. Indeed,
the next few weeks are likely to be
decisive, and certain to be critical, in
the life of the Hellenic kingdom, and,
without doubt, the Entente Powers are
strongly influencing the result. Their
justification, in international law, is
that Russia, France, and England are
the three powers which freed Greece
from the heavy yoke of Turkey, and
which by treaty stand sponsors for the
well-being of the Greek Nation. In that
treaty each of the three powers bound
itself not to put a Prince of its own
reigning house on the throne at Athens,
with the result that German and Danish
Princes succeeded each other on the

984 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Greek throne, and, perhaps more im-
portant, at least one very masterful Ger-
man Princess — Queen Sophia, Kaiser
Wilhelm's sister. Perhaps through her
influence King Constantine has tried to
make Greece a strongly monarchical
country, practically taking into his own
hands questions which the Greek Con-
stitution assigns to the Ministry, as rep-
resenting the nation. Eleutherios Veni-
zelos declares, and undertakes to prove
it at the coming election, that the Greek
people violently resents this " usurpa-
tion." Should- Venizelos be returned to
power, with a strong majority, King
Constantine has two courses open to him —
either to accept the declared will of the
Greek people or to abdicate. In either
case, all practical power will be in the
hands of the Cretan statesman, whose
sympathy is with the Entente cause.
That sympathy may very easily, if his
Parliamentary majority is large enough,
bring Greece into the war on the Entente
side, with an army of, perhaps, 200,000
well-equipped men. It is, therefore, en-
tirely comprehensible that the drive
northward from Saloniki should wait on
the Greek elections. Should these go
strongly in favor of Venizelos, and
should the drive be completely success-
ful, it would have two chief results — to
restore the sovereignty of Serbia and to
cut Bulgaria and Turkey off from the
Central Empires. The Entente Powers
have very strongly influenced the result
of the coming elections by compelling
Constantine to demobilize the army and
send the soldiers home to vote.

The Next Sea Fight

INTERESTING figures have recently
•L become available which make it pos-
sible to answer the question: What
were the forces of the British and Ger-
man fleets the morning after the battle
of Jutland? Which is the same thing
as saying what their forces will be when
they meet next in battle. Both coun-
tries are rapidly building new ships.
England, it is reported, turns out a de-
stroyer a day, besides doing valuable work
on battleships and battle cruisers; and
Germany, while not as well equipped in
navy yards, is, nevertheless, constantly

adding to her fleet. So that we have
not the final figures for either coun-
try, but we can come fairly close to them
in each case. At the end of May, just
before the great sea fight off Denmark,
England had 63 battleships. Of these
23 were pre-dreadnoughts, built before
1905; 10 were dreadnoughts, built be-
tween 1905 and 1910, and 30 (nearly
one-half of the whole, and, in tonnage,
much more than one-half of the whole)
were super-dreadnoughts. None of these
was lost in the battle of Jutland.
Against these, Germany had 20 pre-
dreadnoughts, (5 Kaisers, 10 Braun-
schweigs, 5 Deutschlands,) 8 dread-
noughts, and 12 super-dreadnoughts, or
40 battleships in all. Of these 40 battle-
ships (of which 26 appear to have taken
part in the fight) she lost in the battle
of Jutland, according to Admiral Jel-
licoe, 2 battleships of the dreadnought
class and 1 of the Deutschland class,
which were seen to sink, and, the Eng-
lish Admiral thinks, perhaps one more
battleship. This leaves Germany 36 or
37 battleships, as against 63 for Eng-
land. England had, further, not less
than 10 battle cruisers able to do from
28 to 30 knots, the largest of them car-
rying 13.5-inch guns. Of these, off Jut-
land, she lost 3, (Queen Mary, Invincible,
Indefatigable,) leaving her not less
than 7. She also lost 3 cruisers, but of
these she has well over 100 left. Ger-
many seems to have had 6 battle cruisers
on the morning of May 31. She has ad-
mitted the loss of the Luetzow, which
almost exactly matched the Queen Mary,
lost on the English side. Admiral Jel-
licoe thought she also lost another battle
cruiser and several light cruisers. This
would leave Germany 4 or 5 battle cruis-
ers, as against 7 or more for England;
or 70 capital ships for England and 41
or 42 for Germany. It is interesting to
compare with these the figures for this
country : The United States has 22 pre-
dreadnoughts, 8 dreadnoughts, and 4
super-dreadnoughts, or 34 capital ships;
to these the present program adds 8
capital ships for 1917, (4 battleships and
4 battle cruisers,) 42 capital ships; but
what the naval strengths of England
and Germany will be when these 8 new

INTERPRETATIONS OF WORLD EVENTS

985

ships are ready it is of course impossible
to say.

Sazonoff's Resignation

THE resignation of Sergius Sazonoff,
Minister for Foreign Affairs in
Russia, long celebrated as Russia's chief
Anglophile, came as a thunderbolt from
the blue to the friends of the Allies when
it was announced on July 23. There was
considerable speculation as to the reasons
of his retirement. Rumors to the effect
that it signified a change in Russia's
foreign policy were rife. Premier Sturm-
er, who took over Sazonoff's portfolio, re-
plied to these reports with a statement in
which he says :

The change in the post of Foreign Minister
must not be considered in any sense an in-
dication of the variation of Russia from the
line of conduct of the last two years toward
her allies. The agreement with them will
not be changed. Russia considers it her duty
to support all measures England desires to
accomplish with regard to Germany, and I,
as a tool in the hands of the Emperor, will do
my best to work hand in hand with our allies,
and will strive to strengthen the friendship
between Russia, England, and France.

Premier Sturmer, becoming Foreign
Minister, gave up the post of Minister
of Interior, which he had held. To this
position Alexei Khvostoff, a member of
the Imperial Council, has been appointed.
As Minister of Justice, a reactionary of
the most pronounced type, M. Makharoff
has been appointed.

The real cause of Sazonoff's resigna-
tion is said to have been a disagree-

ment on the Polish question between M.
Sturmer and himself. On July 11 there
was held a council of Ministers at the
General Headquarters. The Polish and
Jewish questions were discussed amojng
other things. Premier Sturmer proposed
that Poland be granted an autonomy con-
sisting merely of broad local self-govern-
ment. M. Sazonoff offered a plan based
on the promises to Poland made by the
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievitch, ex-
Premier Goremykin, and himself. This
plan provided for a full Polish autonomy.
Most of the Ministers approved of Sazo-
noff's plan. Decision was, however,
postponed until the following Cabinet
meeting. Meanwhile the Premier made
it clear that he objected to the project
offered by Sazonoff. The latter, in
view of the stand he had taken on the
subject during the last two years, could
not abandon his project unless he re-
signed from his position as Foreign Min-
ister, which he did. The resignation of
Sazonoff, coming in the nature of a dem-
onstration, may force the Premier to alter
his plans in regard to the future of Po-
land. As to the Jewish question, it was
decided to renew its discussion with a
view to rendering final decision as soon
as Minister of Finance Pierre Bark re-
turns from his visit abroad. The senti-
ments of the Ministers were in favor of
making permanent through legislative
action the temporary abolition of the
" pale " of settlement for the Russian
Jews.

The Issue at Stake in Greece

M. Venizelos, former Premier of Greece, and still leader of popular opinion,
recently made the following statement of the situation in the course of a long
article in the Kyrix :

The constitutional question which will be laid before the Greek Nation is
whether the Crown has the right to form its own opinion on great national ques-
tions, and to impose it independently of the people's verdict by the repeated
dissolution of Parliament, which it justifies on the ground that it has responsi-
bilities toward the Almighty regarding which no explanations are owed to the
people. In the matter of foreign policy the Greek people must thoroughly
realize that Greece, in view of the position which she attained after the two
victorious Balkan wars, cannot exist as an independent political and economic
organization without friends and allies in the JSalkans for the protection of her
Balkan interests, nor without friends and allies among the great powers for
the protection of her Mediterranean interests; and also for financial assistance,
without which Greece can never recover from the deplorable financial situation
which has been the result of the nine months' mobilization.

WAR SEEN FROM TWO ANGLES

[AMERICAN VIEW]

The Month's Military Developments

From July 15 to August 15, 1916

By J. B. W. Gardiner

"Formerly Lieutenant Eleventh United States Cavalry
[See Map of Gorizia, Page 991]

THE operations of the last month
have followed strictly along the
lines of those of the preceding
month. In other words the Allies,
who alone have been on the offensive,
have held to the plan of attacking the
Central Powers on all fronts simulta-
neously in order to neutralize the advan-
tage which the Central Powers possess by
reason of their interior position and
shorter line of communications. On the
fronts in France, in Russia, from the Pri-
pet to the Carpathian Mountains, in Italy
both in the Trentino and on the Isonzo,
and in the Far East in the Caucasus re-
gion, these offensive movements have been
in progress. It is no wonder that in
same places the Teutonic allies give evi-
dence of cracking under the strain.

THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE
The most apparent sign of this giving
way is noted in Galicia, where the Russian
victories have been continuing without in-
terruption. Last month closed with the
Russians apparently held along the Stok-
hod all the way from its source to the
Pripet. The Russians had forced the line
of the Styr, but when they reached the
Stokhod were held back in spite of the
desperate attempts to force a crossing.
Being checked here, the attack drifted to
the south.

It is to be noted that a success in the
south by which the Russians obtain the
Galician capital, Lemberg, will have the
same effect on the line in the north as if
they had captured Kovel. Kovel is, or
would shortly be, utterly untenable once
Lemberg was in the hands of the Rus-
sians. Not only do all the railroad sys-
tems of Southern Russia and of Galicia

centre in this town, but, what is almost as
important, behind Lemberg there is noth-
ing to give protection to a defensive line
until Przemysl is reached. Kovel is
equally necessary to the retention of Lem-
berg. Therefore, the Teutons in order to
preserve their present lines were con-
fronted with the necessity of holding both
of these towns.

The Russian campaign during the
month past has been most skillfully de-
signed to keep the Teutons completely in
the dark as to just which point the main
drive was to be against. The attacks
shifted first southward and then back
again to the north. Then another blow
was struck in the south. The result was
confusion in the German mind as to just
what Russia was really after, a confusion
that, as this review is being written, has
almost produced disaster. The first break
to come was on the line of the Stokhod.
In the neighborhood of Gulevitsche, where
the great bend in the Stokhod begins, the
Russians forced the passage of the river
after one of the hardest battles of the
war. The Teuton line guarding the entire
bend was immediately thrown into jeop-
ardy. Occupying a very sharp salient,
the German commander saw the side be-
ing crushed in. He had to fall back or
lose all the troops and material in the
angle. Accordingly the angle was va-
cated and the most important part of the
line of the Stokhod — immediately east of
Kovel — was in the hands of the Russians.

It was but natural to presume that,
with this line in their hands, the Russians
would attempt to drive through directly
on Kovel. But they did no such thing.
Instead, the point of attack suddenly

WAR SEEN FROM TWO ANGLES

987

RUSSIAN BATTLE FRONT ON AUGUST 16, 1916. COSSACKS SWEEPING ALONG THE NORTH
BANK OP THE DNIESTER HAVE OCCUPIED MARYIMPOL (1), SEVEN MILES FROM
HALICZ, THE KEY TO LEMBERG. TO THE NORTH THEY HAVE TAKEN PODGIACE (2).
AND BIALKOVCE (3), AND IN THE SOUTH, HAVING CAPTURED STANISLAU, THEY ARE
THROWING TROOPS ACROSS THE RIVER AT SOLOTVINA (4).

shifted, and a blow was struck in North-
ern Galicia, whi«h gave them control of
Brody. Simultaneously, a co-ordinate ef-
fort was started south of the Dniester
against Stanislau. Both efforts were suc-
cessful. The line of the upper Sereth,
which the Austrians had held since the
days of the great Russian retreat, was

forced, and the Russians took all the
heights on the west bank.

The advent of von Hindenburg as chief
in command of this section made little
difference. The Russians were not to be
held back. Simultaneously the line along
the Dniester was pushed forward, Stanis-
lau taken, the line of the Zlota Lipa River

988

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

turned, and the entire Austrian position
along the Stripa outflanked. A break in
the Teuton lines either north or south
meant disaster. At the last minute, the
Stripa line was abandoned and in two
days the Austrians had retired nearly
twelve miles to the line, or what was left
of it, of the Zlota Lipa.

The Zlota Lipa, however, will serve
only as a temporary expedient. The
Russians have crossed it near its mouth
and have in absolute possession the last
fifteen miles of its course. It is merely
a stopping place for the Austrians, not
a defensive position at all, as its value
as such was destroyed before the Aus-
trians ever reached it. The Russian
forces are already ten miles beyond it
and are only seven miles from Halicz,
the southern key to Lemberg. Austria
must make a still further retirement be-
fore she can be considered even tempo-
rarily safe.

It is beginning to appear that the
Stryj-Lemberg-Kamionka line will be the
next definite stop. Once this line is
forced, if it is, the Russian path is easy,
and no halt will be made until Przemysl
is reached. The campaign of the earlier
days of the war will thus be duplicated.
Naturally, the Teutonic lines in the north
cannot retain their present positions with
such a retirement in the south. They
will be similarly affected and, in spite of
all the courage and defensive skill of the
Germans, will have to fall back in unison
with the Austrians in the south. It is
as if the entire Teutonic line were a
huge pillar resting on a base composed
of the Austrian forces. One by one the
stones of this base are being eaten away
by the Russian attacks. If this process
of erosion is not checked, the entire pillar
must of necessity fall.

ITALY'S GREAT SUCCESS

While the Russian attacks were in
their most desperate phase, and Austria
was pushed to the limit to protect the
flank of Bothmer's army along the
Stripa River, Italy suddenly launched a
terrific attack against the Gorizia bridge-
head on the Isonzo River. Gorizia is
guarded by three powerful defensive
features, Mount Sabotino, the heights of

Podgora, and Mount San Michele. The
second of these has been in Italian hands
since last November. The other two
have remained steadfastly in Austrian
possession, in spite of the most terrific
attacks of which the Italians were capa-
ble. All the fighting for the Doberdo
Plateau, of which we have read so much
in the official reports, had for its pur-
pose the flanking of the San Michele
position, as it was only by possessing
these positions that -the Gorizia bridge-
head could be taken. The latest Italian
attack was launched against Mount
Sabotino and San Michele. After a pre-
liminary bombardment of two days,
Sabotino fell into the hands of the Italian
infantry in the first attack, and San
Michele soon met the same fate. Within
four days the entire position of the Aus-
trians about Gorizia had fallen into Ital-
ian hands. It is self-deception to try to
minimize the importance of this victory.
The mere fact that the Austrians have
for the last two years made such a
desperate defense of this river is suffi-
cient proof of the strategical value which
their General Staff placed upon it.

A brief study of the map of this coun-
try will show what the Italians gained
when they crossed to the east bank of
the Isonzo and entered Gorizia. Their
object is first of all Trieste, and the
Istrian Peninsula. This must be realized
" in working toward an appreciation of
the value of the Isonzo crossings. With-
out Gorizia, the Italians would in the
first place be fighting on both sides of
the river, but without adequate means of
communication between the forces on the
two banks. It is axiomatic that when an
army has to fight astraddle of a stream
its operations can only be successful
when there is a broad unobstructed ave-
nue between the opposite shores. This
was obtained when Gorizia fell.

Another point is that, had the Ital-
ians attempted to drive to the south-
ward from Gradisca and Monfalcone,
which points they had taken early in
the war, their left flank would have
been completely in the air, with no nat-
ural or artificial obstacle on which to
rest. The only result could have been
disaster. Now the position is reversed.

WAR SEEN FROM TWO ANGLES

989

II is the Austrians whose flank is ex-
posed, the Austrians whose main line
has been turned and who are being
forced from their entire group of posi-
tions along the Isonzo River.

The development of the Italian cam-
paign from now on appears, in its essen-
tial elements, exceedingly simple. It is
to seize the entire Austrian line from
Tolmino to Monfalcone, and between
these points to straighten their own lines
beyond the bends of the Isonzo. Then,
with their left flank resting on Tolmino,
to swing from that town as a pivot, their
right resting continuously on the Gulf
of Trieste. So far, they have taken a
long preliminary step in this direction.
Tolmino is under fire, the Doberdo Pla-
teau has been cleared, and the line from
Gorizia to Monfalcone almost entirely
straightened out. They are going ahead
rapidly and are apparently fully able to
cope with any resistance the Austrians
can make. For the first time since the
declaration of war they are meeting the
Austrians on something like even terms.
The struggle between the two p*owers
will, for this reason, be watched with
increasing interest as the campaign
develops.

In so far as this move of Italy affects
the war as a whole it is to be carefully
noted that the plans of the Entente seem
to focus on the destruction of Austria
as an armed force. Russian attacks
against the main German line*, while they
have not ceased, have lessened in in-
tensity. The great Russian effort is con-
centrated against the shattered and bat-
tered remains of the Austrian Army.
Every effort is being made to sever the
Austrian Army from its German neigh-
bor and destroy it. The entire plan of
Brusiloff seems to have for its objective
not territory, not this town or that, but
the men in the Austrian Army.

Italy's blow brings the end of Austria
nearer as a distinct possibility. It is good
strategy and sound, this business of
eliminating the weaker of the Germanic
powers, so that full attention may be
concentrated on the stronger. It is this
strategy which the Germans employed
against France at the outset, and which
was defeated at the Marne. It was this

strategy which they repeated against the
Russians only to be defeated on the Pri-
pet. The difference between both these
cases and that of Austria lies in the ques-
tion of reserves. Austria is the most
nearly exhausted of any of the belli-
gerents. The Allies have yet to reach the
point where exhaustion of reserves seems
possible. The Austrian loss since the
first Russian offensive was launched on
June 4 has been in prisoners alone,
approximately 400,000 men. This means
that nearly a million men have been put
out of action. Harking back to the early
days of the war, when Russia put out of
action practically the entire first Aus-
trian Army which composed all the
regular "standing" troops, it can be
well understood why Austria has mot
any great body of men on which to fall
back.

THE WAR IN FRANCE
On the western front the month has
not brought any developments of great
interest. The main struggle has been for
the Baupaume Plateau, which begins just
north of the village of Pozieres. The
British attack was launched from low
ground, which gradually mounted to the
plateau, after which it drops gently but
steadily away to Bapaume. The lip of
the plateau has been reached, and is ap-
parently solidly in British hands. The
progress was slow and costly, but all
advantages of terrain now rest with the
British. The Germans, realizing this,
have been counterattacking continually,
and further British advances have been
at least temporarily prevented. The
French have made numerous minor gaifts,
Trat the accomplishments of the Allies
during the month have been insignificant
except in a purely local relation.

The great battle of Verdun, however,
has been brought to a definite conclu-
sion and is a complete German defeat.
This is the most tragic occurrence of
the war for Teuton arms. A gigantic
effort was made, the best soldiery of
which the German Army can boast was
used up in the effort. The net result
has been a few square miles of territory
occupied and a casualty list that must
approach the half -million mark.

In the Far East, fortune has been

990

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

shifting. The Russians by a succession
of swift strokes captured the town of
Erzingan and completed the occupation
of the Caucasus region.

At the same time, the road to
Sivas, the last Turkish base before
Angora, was laid open. Further south,
the honors went to the Turks, who

have taken the towns of Bitlis and
Mush.

None of these operations has yet
reached the point, however, where they
exert any influence on the main theatres
of operations. It is to the European
fields that we must look for definite
results.

[GERMAN VIEW]

The Situation on Three Fronts

By H. H. von Mellenthin

Foreign Editor New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung
[See Map of Western Front, Page 999]

LORD DERBY, Parliamentary Under
Secretary of the British War Of-
fice, recently expressed himself as
follows:

" The only way to win the war is to
kill Germans. This we are doing, and so
are the Russians and the Italians."

Thus speaking he voiced the strategy
of destruction which with the initiation
of the Verdun campaign took the lead
in the military operations. It has been
said of the great offensive on the west
front that it is analogous to that of the
Germans Before Verdun and that it is
being carried on in pursuance of the
rules and the lessons which the campaign
against the great French fortress has
brought. This means that the victory
which clears the path to peace must be
based upon the destruction of the enemy.

From the point of view of the Allies
the question of the ways and means by
which to bring about a decision was
simplified at the moment the opening
of the great offensives confined the de-
cisive combat to the theatres of oper-
ations in the West, East and South.
Human material and munitions are the
decisive factors. The proper employment
and utilization of these two factors on
the one hand, and on the other the ability
to counterbalance such an advantage on
the opponent's side, determine the strate-
gic superiority of generalship. It is from
this standpoint that the events of the last
few weeks in all theatres of war must be
reviewed.

RUSSIAN DRIVE DWINDLES
The development of the Russian of-
fensive on the southeastern front up to
Aug. 15 is marked by the following
phases :

1. The abandonment of the Russian
advance against the line Sarny-Kovel.

2. The occupation of Brody by the Rus-
sians.

3. The Teuton counteroffensive in the
Carpathians.

4. The opening of the Russian cam-
paign against Lemberg from the south-
east and south.

The attacks against the railway line
Sarny-Kovel from the south, from the
. region of Lutsk, and from the east, were
aimed primarily at the possession of the
important railway communication; the
larger strategic aim was to pierce Gen-
eral von Linsingen's front at the point
where it joins that of Prince Leopold
of Bavaria, and thus to extend the great
offensive to the northernmost sector of
the Russian battle line. The same pur-
pose is pursued by the Russian attacks in
the Pinsk region.

From the south the Russians advanced
as far as the western bank of the Stok-
hod, compelling Linsingen to regroup his
front. Against the newly formed front
all further Russian attacks were launched
in vain. The battle on the Stokhod line
in Northern Volhynia ended about the
middle of last month with heavy losses
to the Muscovite attackers, particularly
to the Russian Guards, and therewith

THE DUKE OF AOSTA

Commander of the Italian Army Which Captured Gorizia on August 9,
and Which Is Advancing Toward Trieste.

WAR SEEN FROM TWO ANGLES

991

the northern sector was — temporarily at
least — eliminated from the great offen-
sive.

On July 8 the Russians occupied
Brody. The drive against this Galician
city, situated close to the border and
on the railway Rovno-Dubno-Brody-
Lemberg, had been launched from the
Radsivilov road, whither runs that from
Dubno and where the army of Boehm-
Ermolli stood.

After the occupation of Brody it was
asserted that now the way to Lemberg
from the east was clear to the Rus-
sians. The advance from this direction,
however, was never begun. The reason
is that in attempting it the Russians
would have exposed themselves to the
danger of having their right flank at-
tacked and rolled up by the Linsingen
army and their left flank enveloped by
the left wing of Count von Bothmer's
forces.

On the extreme southern wing of
their great offensive movement the
Russians had advanced from Czernowitz
along the Pruth to the eastern Carpa-
thian pass of Jablonica. This pass was
to be forced in order to open the road
to the Hungarian plain, with Marmaros
Sziget as the immediate goal. The Rus-
sian advance in the direction of this
plain also has been discontinued. The
army of General Pflanzer-Baltin extri-
cated itself from the menacing envelop-
ment. The attempt to break through
the Teuton lines had failed in the south-
ernmost sector of the great offensive as
similar attempts further north had
failed. The Teuton lines held. From
new positions immediately before the
Carpathians a Teuton counteroffensive
was launched.

At the moment of this writing comes
the news of the capture by the Russians
of Worochta, on the railway to Stanislau,
and the town of Jablonica as well as
other minor Teuton positions, including
Solotvina. Reports from Petrograd in-
dicate a renewal of the offensive in the
Carpathians and Vienna admits a slight
withdrawal of the Teuton lines. There
are, however, no indications thus far of
a Russian movement on this theatre suf-
ficiently strong to throw the whole

Teuton extreme wing back into the Car-
pathian passes, and even in that event
the natural defensive qualities of these
passes preclude a Russian break through
to the plain.

The developments of the military situ-
ation on the southeastern theatre of war
have led to a reconstruction in the high
commands on the side *of the allied Cen-
tral Powers. The previous seven great
army groups — Hindenburg, Prince Leo-
pold of Bavaria, Archduke Josef Ferdi-
nand, Linsingen, Boehm-Ermolli, Both-
mer, and Pflanzer-Baltin — have been
merged into two groups, one commanded
by Field Marshal von Hindenburg, the
other by the Archduke heir apparent,
Karl Franz Josef.

Hindenburg's group of armies now
comprises the following fronts:

1. Dwina front as far as Dwinsk.

2. South of Dwinsk as far as Wygon-
owskoje Lake, (north of Baronovitchi.)

3. Front of Prince Leopold of Bavaria
as far as Pinsk.

4. Linsingen front from the Pripet
marshes to a point northeast of Brody,
(comprising the Stokhod front.)

5. Vladimir- Volynski front under Gen-
eral Tersztyanszky von Nadas, almost as
far as the Galician frontier.

6. Brody front under General Boehm-
Ermolli, to a point west of the Sereth
headwaters.

Army group of Archduke Karl Franz
Josef :

1. Bothmer front, from southwest of
Brody with the Sereth front northwest
cf Tarnopol almost as far as the Buko-
wina border, comprising the region
north of Stanislau.

2. The Pflanzer-Baltin army has
been regrouped. The front from Dela-
tyn to the Carpathian passes has been
placed under the command of General
Koevess, who led the Austro-Hungarian
forces in the Balkan campaign. The
front of Pflanzer-Baltin stretches to the
Moldava in the southern Bukowina.

With regard to these changes in the
high commands it is noteworthy that the
Austro-Hungarian heir apparent has
been intrusted with the command of the
very front on which there rage at this
moment the most important battles,

992

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

namely, the army group of Count von
Bothmer, against whose centre and
right wing the Russians are now direct-
ing the most significant operations of
the great offensive with their campaign
against Lemberg from the south.

It is an old tradition of the Hapsburg
House never to expose any of its mem-
bers at a point where a defeat might
threaten. The appointment of Arch-
duke Karl Franz Josef to this command
is the more significant inasmuch as he
was recalled from the Italian front —
where he had been in chief command —
immediately after the abandonment of
the Austro-Hungarian offensive against
Italy on the south Tyrolean frontier. We
may, therefore, conclude that Vienna
does not regard as really threatening the
military situation created by the inaug-
uration of the Russian campaign against
Lemberg.

The further Russian advance after the
capture of Brody against Lemberg was
discontinued because Linsingen threat-
ened the Russian right, Bothmer the Rus-
sian left. The offensive against the army
of <Dount von Bothmer in the centre and
on the right wing had been launched in
order to initiate the campaign against
Lemberg from the south and the south-
east, that from the east having failed.

The right wing and the centre of Both-
mer's army were compelled to evacuate
their entire positions on the Stripa. In
the course of the subsequent fighting
against Bothmer's right wing the Rus-
sians under General Letchitsky occupied
Stanislau. A further advance led the
Russian Army under General Tcher-
batcheff across the Rivers Koropiec,
Zlota-Lipa, and Khomanka, and on to
Maryampol. This means that the Russian
left wing (Letchitsky's army) and the
centre (Tcherbatcheff) joined hands on
the comparatively short front, Stanislau-
Maryampol. The further Russian ad-
vance against Lemberg is to proceed be-
yond Halicz against the Galician capital,
but it is already meeting at this writing
(middle of August) vigorous resistance
to the west of Stanislau.

The great Russian offensive, which
was opened on the immensely long front
from the Pripet marshes down to the

Bessarabian frontier, has dissolved itself
into the campaign against Lemberg.

Major Moraht, the well-known Ger-
man military critic, writes:

" The elasticity of our lines has pre-
served our main forces unweakened for
coming events. Threatened sectors have
been strengthened in order to attain a
decision, and the organization of victory
for which we are hoping has been pre-
pared by a reformation of the armies
and a reconstruction of the commands."
ITALIANS AT GORIZIA

On the 7th of August, after the fight-
ing on the Tyrolean south frontier had
become desultory and lost its mobile char-
acter, the Italians launched an offensive
on the Isonzo front, as a complement to
the general offensives of the Allies. Two
days later the Italians occupied Gorizia,
capital of the Austro-Hungarian crown-
land of the same name. The possession
of this city and district had been the im-
mediate objective of the Italian attacks
since the end of May, 1915.

After the Italians had taken Monte
Sabotino in the north and Monte San
Michele south of Gorizia, the bridgehead
of that city had become untenable. Pos-
session of this bridgehead necessarily re-
sulted in the Italian occupation of the
City of Gorizia.

Two main possibilities now feature the
prospects of the further Italian offensive
movements on this front. An advance in
the direction of Trieste, or one in the
direction of Laibach.

As long as Italy was conducting her
own war, consideration of " Irredenta
Italia " pointed to Trieste as the objective
of any further advance after the fall of
Gorizia. Now that Italy, too, has been
drawn into the Allies' community of
action, it is different. For this commu-
nity of action Laibach represents a factor
of great importance. It is via Laibach
that the way leads to the Steiermarck
and into Hungary's interior. But the way
is a long and difficult one.

With the occupation of Gorizia the
Italians have advanced but a tiny step in
their " march on Vienna " begun fifteen
months ago. The old, formerly beautiful
city lies in a basin of the Isonzo Valley.

WAR SEEN FROM TWO ANGLES

993

In order to enjoy, unpunished, the pos-
session of the city, the conquerors must
necessarily also have the heights on the
eastern bank of the Isonzo, situated to
the north and south of the valley. To
the east of the city these heights come
close together and leave only a narrow
path between them, the romantic valley
of the Wippach, (Vippachio.) And be-
yond these heights, the most important
of which is covered by the Ternova Wood,
lies barren " Karst " terrain. As long as
the Isonzo front north of Gorizia is held
by the defenders, there can be no ques-
tion of an advance against Laibach.

The shaping of the military situation
on the Isonzo front since the fall of
Gorizia indicates that the Italian offen-
sive has chosen Trieste as the immediate
goal.

The Austro-Hungarian troops after
the loss of Gorizia had at first taken up
new positions on the heights northeast
of the city and on the Vertojba line, three
kilometers to the south, and there re-
sisted an attempt at a continuation of
the Italian drive. Through the loss of
Gorizia the Austro-Hungarian line had
been bent only at one point. The dent
was extended by the occupation of the
Doberdo Plateau, southwest of Gorizia,
and of the territory immediately in front
of the Karst Plateau to the east. Against
this Italian base of attack the defenders
have taken a new, firm position, which
.runs from the shore of the Adriatic to
Monte San Gabriele.

To the north and northeast of Gorizia
the defenders have established a further
base of support, on the plateau com-
manding the plain of Gorizia, whence
they are stemming the hostile advance.

Seven Italian storm attacks against
the heights east of Gorizia, directed from
the Wippach Valley, have been beaten
off with extremely sanguinary losses to
the Italians. In this region the Italian
advance has been brought to a standstill.
The subsequent development of the of-
fensive will depend upon the outcome of
the battles at Monte San Gabriele and
Monte Santo, north and northeast of
Gorizia. These battles at this writing are
being prepared by powerful artillery
bombardments.

ALLIES' FAILURE IN FRANCE

The great Anglo-French offensive on
the west front, which was begun July
1 on a front of thirty-three kilometers,
already has degenerated into trench
warfare. The mobility of the fighting
on this front consists merely of the gain
of a fraction of a trench or the loss of a
little wood on this or the other local
front. Toward the end of July there were
great artillery preparations on the part
of the Allies on a wide front, foreshad-
owing a new drive on a large scale. This
drive was to be launched on a line on
both banks of the Somme, south of
Pozieres, on the road from Albert to La
Boiselle and Pozieres, and further to
Bapaume, from Vermandovillers against
Peronne. This front comprises the
centre of the Anglo-French battle line
and the right wing held by the French.
Evidently the Allies proposed to re-estab-
lish, by a united blow, the lost strategic
cohesion between the centre and the
right wing. The battle areas which had
been isolated and localized by the Ger-
man defensive initiative were to be
joined together once more. But this at-
tempt at a main blow also failed. The
result was wholly out of proportion to
the extent of the preparations and the
strength spent.

Today the Anglo-French front runs as
follows : Thiepval-Pozieres-Bazentin-le-
Petit-Longueval-Maurepas-west of Clery-
west of Biaches-Belloy-Soyecourt. With
the capture of Maurepas in the first week
of August the British scored one more
great success. Since then, up to date,
the fighting has become weaker and
weaker. The " great offensive " which
was to prepare the driving out of the Ger-
mans from Northern France and Bel-
gium has dissolved itself into the " Battle
of Picardy," and there is today only
trench fighting left, the trenches con-,
tinuously changing hands, particularly on
the line Pozieres-Thiepval.

Should the Allies really succeed, in the
course of the coming battles, in occupy-
ing the line Bapaume- Combles-Peronne,
they would even then have accomplished
nothing but a local success in the form
of a dent in the German front on a com-
paratively small stretch. The prospects

994

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

for the further development of the mili-
tary situation as created by the great of-
fensive on the west front are made clear-
est by the statement of the German Gen-
eral Staff that the Germans have estab-
lished behind their real battle line de-
fensive positions equal to those v/rested
from them.

Before Verdun the mobility of action
has completely ceased. Now and then
there are artillery duels on the eastern
bank of the Meuse, before Vaux, and in
the region of Fleury village, and still
more rarely on the west bank. The Ger-
mans evidently have withdrawn strong
forces, and the French are unable to take
the offensive.

As for the incidental theatres of war,
interest centres upon the successes of the
Turks against the Russians in Persia and
on the Caucasus front.

The Ottomans have recaptured Kama-
dan in Persia and the Armenian cities
of Bitlis and Mush. The Turkish ad-
vance against the Suez Canal, on the
other hand, has netted no appreciable
gains.

The "great offensive" of the Allies
from Saloniki is still " impending," as it
has been ever since the Macedonian front
was established.

The local fighting around Doiran
Lake is without any military significance
whatsoever.

The Fall of Gorizia

Italy's First Important Victory

[See Graphic Drawing of Gorizia Region Opposite Page 991]

THE Entente Allies at last are in
full tide of their concerted move-
ment to close in upon the enemy
from all sides, and to end the
great European war as our civil war was
ended — by pressing the enemy all the
time on every front, giving no time for
respite and no opportunity to utilize the
advantage of inside lines.

Italy's part in this united offensive
has given her the most spectacular vic-
tory of the month, as well as the first
important success of Italian arms in this
war. The capture of the Austrian strong-
hold of Gorizia by King Victor Emman-
uel's Third Army, which is commanded
by his cousin, the Duke of Aosta, has
removed the chief obstacle on the way
to Trieste. The latter city is now said
to be garrisoned by Germans in expecta-
tion of the coming attack.

Courage, imagination, and strategy all
figured in the taking of Gorizia, and
parts of the story read like romance.
The town is dominated by three mountain
heights — Sabotino, Podgora, and San
Michele. The Italians already held
Podgora, but as long as the Austrians
1-etained the other two mountains it was

mere suicide to try to take the Podgora-
Gorizia bridgehead in the valley below.
The capture of these mountain keys of
the famous little city was achieved
partly by means of powerful new guns,
which poured upon the enemy the most
terrible rain of shells ever known on the
Italian front, and partly by means of
underground passages bored through the
solid rock.

The Italian attack began on Aug. 4
in the Monfalcone section, east of Rocca,
where powerful enemy works were
stormed. The Austrians, however, had
left large numbers of gas bombs in the
abandoned trenches; these exploded just
as the Italians entered the captured
lines, and while the soldiers staggered,
stupefied by the gas, the enemy launched
a strong counterattack which drove the
Italians back to their own trenches.

The next day the Italian artillery
sounded the whole of the enemy's front,
distracting his attention and at the same
time getting the ranges accurately. Then
on the morning of Aug. 6 the successful
offensive began. Under an unclouded
Summer sky the titanic orchestra of
Italian guns began rending the air with

THE FALL OF GORIZIA

MAP OF THE ITALIAN FRONTIER, COVERING THE CHIEF POINTS OF IMPORTANCE

ON -THE WAR FRONTS

a terrifying chorus all the way from
Plava Heights to Monfalcone. The whole
region that had been plowed up by big
shells since July 14 was again subjected
to a ceaseless hail of explosives for nine
hours. No such awe-inspiring cascade
of fire ever before had been witnessed
-on the Italian front. At 4 o'clock in the
afternoon the infantry leaped from their
trenches and dashed over the shattered
earth to complete the work with bullet
and bayonet.

As Monte Sabotino had proved prac-
tically impregnable, plans had been laid
to take it by surprise. For months the
Italian sappers had been secretly at work
excavating wide passageways through
the solid rock from their own lines to
within twenty yards of the Austrian de-
fenses. Three of these tunnels, from 240
to 300 feet long, were ready for use when
the artillery preparation began. While
the cannon thundered on that Sunday
morning of Aug. 6, the Italian infantry
poured through these subterranean cor-
ridors and suddenly burst out at the
further end, throwing themselves upon
the astonished Austrians and overcoming
them before they could organize an ef-
fective resistance. Thus the dreaded

Sabotino Mountain passed into Italian
hands.

On the same day the remaining key of
Gorizia, Monte San Michele, was cap-
tured. San Michele had been taken and
lost by the Italians at least twenty-five
times, and for seven months they had
held half of the summit; but it had al-
ways been dominated by the Austrian
fire from the still higher summit of
Monte Sabotino, and only when this was
taken did the Italians gain final posses-
sion of San Michele. Their big guns
silenced Austrian batteries on both sum-
mits with the aid of twenty-four dirigible
balloons, each carrying four tons of ex-
plosives. By day and night these balloons
were operated in the most daring manner.
They were attacked frequently by Aus-
trian aeroplanes, which in turn were
driven off by Italian aeroplanes or by
guns mounted on the dirigibles.

As soon as the Italians held the
dominating heights their big guns turned
their attention to shelling the Austrians
out of the City of Gorizia, while the
infantry was hurled forward to capture
the bridge in open battle.

It remained to take the imposing bar-
rier formed by the heights between

996

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Podgora and Gorizia. Here the Austro-
Hungarians had taken refuge in hun-
dreds of caves, some of which had been
enlarged into vast subterranean halls
that served at once as munition depots
and as quarters for thousands of men.
From one of these tortuous grottoes 800
Hungarians with hand bombs and ma-
chine guns maintained an untiring fight
for a whole day and night, and until
noon the following day. Even then they
resisted passively for several hours
before they were reduced to the point of
suffocation by straw and petroleum fires
lighted at the entrances of the cave.
Twenty guns and many tons of ammuni-
tion were captured with these stubborn
fighters.

The battle ebbed and flowed incessant-
ly for three days. The ground was well
fortified, and the Austrians fought bit-
terly for every foot of the remaining
ground. Inch by inch, with heavy losses,
the Italians conquered first the crest and
then the southeastern slopes leading
down to the river, storming trench after
trench, and driving the enemy back over
the bridge that had been battled for so
many months. The Austrians blew it up
in their retreat. With water up to their
necks, carrying rifles above their heads
and shouting patriotic songs, the Italians
forded the broad stream and carried the
eastern bank. Enemy shrapnel, which

churned the water into foam, failed to
check their progress. Men wounded in
the water insisted on being helped to
gain the eastern bank. " Then they'll not
send us back."

On the morning of Aug. 9 the Duke of
Aosta, accompanied by the King, rode at
the head of his army into the conquered
city. The Austrians, commanded by
General Zeiller, had retired eastward
through the mountains to Vallone, leav-
ing more than 15,000 prisoners in Italian
hands.

The fighting throughout these three
days, especially at the bridge leading
from Podgora to Gorizia, ranks with the
most sanguinary of the war. The Aus-
trians fought desperately, compelling the
victors to pay for every gain, so that the
casualties on both sides were large.
Neither side has reported the figures
thus far, but the total for both together
is estimated at 30,000.

The victory at Gorizia has been fol-
lowed up vigorously by General Cador-
na's forces, both at that point and else-
where on the Isonzo front. The Austrians
have been driven beyond Vallone and are
under heavy pressure all along the edge
of the Carso southward. At this writing
(Aug. 21) the Italian guns dominate
Tolmino in the upper Isonzo Valley and
are within a dozen miles of Trieste in the
south.

The Battle of the Somme

An Authoritative French Account Based on Official Records

By M. Ardouin-Dumazet

Military Editor of Le Temps and Le Figaro
[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY]

THE BATTLEFIELD

THE field on which the battle has
began includes two regions of
strongly contrasted character.
One, in which the British Army
is operating, might go under the name
of Bapaume, the most considerable place
in the direction contemplated by our
allies; the other, to the south, might be
called the Peronne region, from the ap-
parent objective of the French forces.

The English front, which is the longer
— 11 miles in the direct line from Gom-
mecourt to Montauban, 15 *£ miles if we
count the curves — is divided by the
course of the little River Ancre, an af-
fluent of the Somme, which it enters
near Corbie. Save for this deep furrow,
enlivened by abundant water, the whole
region is a succession of ample undu-
lations between dry ravines. The heights
regular little plateaus each with its very
extensive village set in orchards or amid
large trees, contrasting with the bare-
ness of the slopes, which were for-
merly covered with rich fields of
wheat, of field poppies, or of beet-
roots. A few plantations of trees,
far apart, are the witnesses to the
former sylvan character of the country.
The region is remarkably uniform in
height; from 400 feet near the Ancre, the
slopes rise, 6 miles to the west, to 570
feet at the highest point, that is to say,
an imperceptible slope. One of the high-
est ridges, 538 feet, is near Gommecourt,
where the battlefield begins, and is in
the neighborhood of Hebuterne. The nar-
row plateaus, raised on gentle slopes, like
long glacis, are, with their villages or-
ganized for defense, very strong posi-
tions, which can only be mastered by a
prolonged bombardment. Therefore at
this point the struggle has its alter-
nations of advance and withdrawal; the

towns mentioned above, as well as the
hamlets of Serre and Beaumont-Hamel,
are furiously fought for. On the opposite
bank of the Ancre there is a fierce con-
test about Thiepval, in another region of
ridges separated by deeper and more
numerous valleys.

The road from Albert to Valenciennes
through Bapaume traverses this sector
in a perfectly straight line for 10^ miles.
This wide, stately-looking causeway was
barred by the Germans, to the south of
Thiepval, at the hamlet of Boisselle, less
than 2 miles from the unfortunate City
of Albert, ruined by the enemy. Since
1914, La Boisselle and its neighbor Ovil-
lers, the chief town of the commune,
have been the scene of extremely violent
combats. The enemy has built very
strong defenses at this point; against
them, since the battle began, the English
have been hammering.

To the south, the battlefield is marked
by sharp folds, with dry ravines, on
whose flanks the chalk crops out, enter-
ing a long, unwatered valley which the
narrow-gauge railroad from Albert to
Peronne follows as far as Montauban,
and which the State road makes use of
for a while. The enemy is firmly planted
in the villages of this valley: Fricourt,
Mametz, and Montauban, a town perched
on the slope of a ridge whose highest
point, 518 feet, is the highest in the whole
region between Albert and Peronne.

The English lines a short time ago ex-
tended as far as the Somme, covered the
white cliff of the village of Vaux and
finished at the brook up-stream from
Suzanne. Opposite, on the left (south)
bank of the Somme, the French lines be-
gan. In view of the coming offensive, a
part of our (French) troops were brought
back to the right bank, between Bray-on-
Somme and the valley of Fricourt, toward

998

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Carnoy. From this point we started for
the contest which was to carry us to
Hardecourt-in-the-Woods.

The narrow-gauge railroad follows an
odd line, to reach Combles. Departing
from its easterly course, at a point 3
miles from Curlu, it goes north, curves
past Montauban, turns to the east, goes
south toward Combles, and reaches Curlu
after a loop of 10% miles. In the midst
of the loop is hidden in a fold Harde-
court-in-the-Woods, separated from the
Somme by 2 miles of hilly ground. On
the bank of the river, stretched out be-
neath high walls of chalk, is the Village
of Curlu, before which the Somme de-
scribes one of its oddest meanderings,
surrounding an oval plain in great part
fringed with peat-mosses. The chord of
this loop of the river is cut by the
Somme Canal, which is bordered by the
long but narrow village of Frise, which
the Germans took from us some months
ago. To the east of Curlu, between the
villages of Hem and Feuilleres, a cause-
way crosses the Somme and the canal and
climbs up the slopes of the left (south)
bank, skirting at a height of 346 feet,
180 feet above the Somme, the little wood
of Mereaucourt.

At this point begins the plateau of
Santerre, which extends past Chaulnes
and Roye as far as the hills of Lassigny.
At first, much broken up, it becomes a
level plain from the point where it leaves
the road from Peronne to Amiens. In
the region near the river, the country is
like that on the right (north) bank,
ridges and swellings bearing small pla-
teaus which have a village in the centre
or at the side: Dompierre, Becquincourt,
and Bussus, which form a single group,
Herbecourt, Assevillers, Estrees, where
begins a dry valley which comes out on
the Somme at Bray. In this valley lies a
series of villages, the first of which is
Fay. Further on, to the south, extends
the plain dotted with many villages.

To the east, the plateau, still a succes-
sion of ridges, is surrounded on three
sides by the Somme, which, beginning
with Voyennes — between Nesle and Hem
— describes a great loop of which Asse-
villers, Flaucourt, and Barleux, at cross-
roads, occupy the centre. The last vil-

lage, Biaches, lies opposite Peronne. Be-
tween Flaucourt and that town there is
a distance of only 3 miles. A plateau
raised on pretty steep slopes, at a height
of 321 feet, or 164 feet above the Somme,
separates Flaucourt from Peronne.

Of the two divisions of the battlefield,
that of the right bank of the Ancre is less
broken up; further on, as far as the
Somme, then as far as the Amiens road,
the succession of ridges surrounded by
ravines and topped by villages, is the
strongest part of the region in which the
struggle has begun; in that region, how-
ever, the successes were most rapid.

We are now acquainted with the region
in which, beginning with July 1, has been
fought one of the bloodiest battles of the
great drama. We shall follow its dif-
ferent developments.

THE PREPARATION

The bulletins of the preceding week,
which made it apparent that the bom-
bardment preluding a great offensive had
begun on the English front, were silent
as to the participation of the French in
this hurricane of fire. Yet our artillery
was playing its part, on a front rather
restricted in comparison with the Eng-
lish lines, but of a high strategic value.
We were fighting on both banks of the
Somme, one part of our forces having,
as we indicated higher up, crossed the
river to take the place of English forces
between the river and the road from
Albert to Peronne.

The action of our "powerful batteries
and of the sixteen-inch mortars was
preparing an attack of extreme intensity.
It was launched on the morning of July
1, (Saturday,) in co-operation with a
movement of the British Army, which
was active only on a narrow part of its
front, and not in the regions of Flanders
and Artois, where the bulletins had in-
sistently mentioned cannonades and mine
explosions. The British action took place
on the confines of Artois and Picardy,
principally on the territory of the latter
province. The news of the movement ar-
rived with the announcement of the first
and important successes. Verdun sank a
little into the background.

Until Sunday, July 2, then, the French
bulletins had said nothing of the prepar-

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

009

flOSIERE&S<rl-iHON

PROGRESS MADE BY ANGLO-FRENCH FORCES IN THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
AFTER SIX WEEKS' FIGHTING, SHOWN BY BROKEN LINE

ations; those of the English stated that
during the bombardment numerous raids
had been pushed forward to the lines of
the enemy, whose trenches, leveled by
shells, contained few besides dead and
wounded; our allies had advanced, at
certain points, using gas, as a reply to
the cruel methods of war of the enemy.

At the same time aviation played a very
extensive role; all the captive balloons
(drachen) of the Germans were attacked
and destroyed; their airmen were pur-
sued unceasingly. Before the battle, the
German Army had lost its means of ob-
servation. Other machines poured bombs
on the railroad stations, the storehouses,

1000 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the munition depots and machines of the
enemy, and on trains in motion. At the
moment when the struggle was begun,
the general quarters of the enemy were
attacked with bombs dropped from the
clouds. The French airmen were not less
busy; they destroyed all the drachen and
prevented the German aeroplanes from
approaching our lines.

THE ATTACK

Thus the attack began when the enemy
was deprived of his means of aerial
scouting. In both the English region and
our own, it was superb in its vigor. Our
allies joined battle from Gommecourt to
Fricourt, only 2 miles from Albert, their
line of attack crossing the Ancre between
Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval. At the
point of contact* with our troops, they
took Mametz and Montauban, thus get-
ting a footing on the highest point,
whence radiates, toward the Somme and
the upper course of the Ancre, a network
of ravines which appears inextricable.
Mametz and Montauban had been furi-
ously defended; fierce counterattacks de-
layed their fall until the evening. An-
other village, Fricourt, resisted. During
this time, an even more violent action
was being fought on the road from Ba-
paume to La Boisselle, where the enemy
seems to have collected the most formid-
able means of defense; the fight extended
on the east to Contalmaison, on the north
toward Ovillers and Thiepval; the Eng-
lish registered some progress, but with-
out succeeding in forcing the intrench-
ments.

On the Somme the French obtained
successes comparable to those of the Eng-
lish toward Montauban. They attacked
on both sides of the valley. Starting on
the north, that is, on the right bank,
from the neighborhood of Carnoy and
Maricourt, they drove the enemy from
his trenches and pressed him back on
Hardecourt-in-the-Woods, in the great
curve marked by the Albert-Peronne Rail-
road. On the river itself, they captured
Curlu, after a fierce struggle.

The success was not less on the left
(south) bank, in the loop of the Somme.
Dompierre and Becquincourt, which
make, as we have seen, a single group
with the hamlet of Bussus, were carried

by admirably led assaults; to the south,
near the road to Amiens and the village
of Estrees, Fay, so often fought over
through nearly two years, was taken in
its turn. We were masters of a front
extending from the approaches of Frise,
on the Somme, as far as Estrees.
On the opposite bank, we held the ap-
proaches of Curlu. More than 5,000
prisoners were brought back; guns, ma-
chine guns, diverse engines, a mass of
material had fallen into our hands. And
our losses, thanks to the artillery prepa-
ration and the marvelous dash of our
soldiers, had been very small.

As always, the enemy tried to counter-
attack under cover of the night, striking
fiercely, especially to the north of Harde-
court, but all his assaults were broken
by our barrier-fire; he finally withdrew
in disorder, abandoning 200 more prison-
ers, six of whom were officers. During
this time, on the right bank, ourselves
taking advantage of the darkness to ad-
vance, we approached Herbecourt and
Assevillers. The Germans had hastily
called up reserves and strengthened their
occupation of Frise, a village the loss of
which some months earlier we had left
severely. But Frise, violently bombarded,
was approached by our soldiers, at 2
in the morning, in spite of the obstacles
accumulated before it. The enemy was
pushed out so rapidly that he had not the
time to offer a serious resistance. Frise
occupied, as well as Curlu on the other
bank, we were masters of the great loop
of the Somme. The victors, following up
their advantage, mounted the Herbecourt
ridge, carried, at its end above the
Somme, the wood of Mereaucourt, from
which they dominated the bridgehead of
Feuilleres and Hem. The wood had been
covered with trenches; it concealed veri-
table caverns, whose occupants thought
themselves safe from any attack.

On the other bank of the Somme, once
Curlu had been taken, our troops, advanc-
ing along the river, dislodged the enemy
from the deep quarries dug in the chalk
and transformed into fortresses. More
to the north, our progress was strength-
ened toward Hardecourt, which was pow-
erfully intrenched, and rising in an
amphitheatre in the hollow of a valley as

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

1001

far as the edge of the plateau surrounded
by ravines.

On the same day, that is, Sunday, the
English who, during the night, had re-
pelled a formidable counterattack, led
by four columns, continued to attack La
Boisselle with success ; in the evening they
took a part of the villp^e. More to the
north, they were compelled at certain
points to abandon a part of their gains;
to the south they carried Fricourt in the
afternoon. The whole valley followed
as far as Montauban by the narrow-
gauge railroad was from that time in
the hands of the Allies. A German bat-
talion sent on the following day to Fri-
court, finding itself surrounded, surrend-
ered without a fight.

The British troops met with a resist-
ance which increased in fierceness; how-
ever, on Monday, July 3, La Boisselle was
taken; the German troops capitulated
while the neighboring village, Ovillers,
saw the struggle resumed with increased
bitterness. In the morning our allies oc-
cupied a part of the enemy trenches. The
contests on the Ancre were not less vio-
lent, especially to the south of Thiepval;
yet the English made headway; they had
taken up to this point 4,300 prisoners.
From that time the conflict was carried
on with growing fury, but all the Ger-
man attacks against La Boisselle were
broken against English tenacity.
FRENCH PROGRESS

While the English were fighting, to the
south of Arras, as far as the Ancre, other
battles of which no account has been
given, and while, before Albert, this
fierce struggle had been going on, the
French continued to progress in the loop
of the Somme. Starting from the
Mereaucourt Wood, French battalions ad-
vanced toward Assevillers, carried Herbe-
court, whose defensive organization
seemed to defy all assaults, and attacked
Assevillers, still more formidably guard-
ed. Joined by other elements coming
through Dompierre and Becquincourt,
they occupied the outskirts of the village,
and, after a new artillery preparation,
rushed forward with magnificent vigor
against the strongly defended ruins.
Assevillers was in our hands.

To the south, Estrees was approached.
The enemy had strongly covered this vil-
lage, because of its situation on the high
road from Amiens to Peronne; he held
his ground there on the evening of Mon-
day, July 3. In the remainder of the
loop, our progress was considerable:
Flaucourt, only 3 miles from Peronne,
was taken; further north, passing the
Mereaucourt Wood, we captured Feuil-
leres, important because of the bridges
over the canal and the Somme, and the
causeway across the marshes. From
Feuilleres, ascending the left bank, our
soldiers reached the fortified Chapitre
Wood, took it by assault, and reached the
hamlet of Buscourt. On Monday evening,
the enemy held in the loop of the Somme,
only Belloy-en-Santerre, where reinforce-
ments that had been dispatched to him
were dispersed by our guns; Barleux,
Biache, at the gates of Peronne, and Vil-
lers-Carbonnel, very important because
at the crossroads of Roye and Amiens,
and the point of passage, through Pont-
les-Brie, of the Somme and the canaL
At the close of July 3, we held as trophies
ten batteries of artillery, five being of
large calibre, many machine-guns, trench
guns, without counting guns put out of
action by the bombardment, and more
than 8,000 prisoners. This figure was
raised to 9,500 on the following day, the
English on the same day reaching 6,000.

The storms and rainy weather which
followed did not stop our progress. On
Tuesday, July 4, in spite of continuous
torrents, our troops continued their ad-
vance in the loop of the Somme. Es-
trees, entered house by house, was almost
completely conquered ; to the east, Belloy-
en-Santerre was likewise taken. Between
this village, Assevillers, and Barleaux,
woods, furrowed with trenches, sur-
rounded with a network of barbed wire
entanglements, fell to us in their turn.
Only 1,100 yards separated us from Bar-
leux, the last village which remained to
the Germans in the loop of the Somme.

The Germans, during the night of
Tuesday-Wednesday, July 4-5, bombarded
and then attacked Belloy; they succeeded
in occupying a part of it for a time, on
the east, but were driven out by a count-
erattack. In the morning, they still held

1002 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the east of Estrees, in assaulting which
they had spent their forces. During this
time, we made headway along the banks
of the Somme, from Feuilleres as far as
the Sormont Farm, which is only 2%
miles from Peronne.

To the north of the Somme, we took
Hem on July 5, after a sharp contest.

All these events were developed before
Peronne, whose railway station, on the
main line from Paris to Cambrai, is the
centre of supplies for the whole of this
part of Picardy, of the Vermandois and
Santerre.

Three days after the taking of Hem,
we carried Hardecourt-in-the- Woods, at
the point of contact of our left wing
with the right wing of the English.

But our principal action had as its
stage the loop of the Somme, where we
little by little pushed the Germans back
to the river, upstream from Peronne,
while, downstream from the town, all the
left (south) bank came into our posses-
sion.

On Friday, July 7, going forward from
Belloy and Estrees, we drove the enemy
out of his trenches and brought back
400 prisoners.

On Sunday, July 9, our troops under-
took a new advance toward the east,
along the whole front, from the river
near the Sormont farm to Belloy-en-
Santerre, Flaucourt being at the centre
of the line. This attack, prepared by our
artillery, conducted with vigor and a
remarkable cohesion of its different ele-
ments, secured for us a gain of one and
one-quarter miles of ground along this
whole front. Biaches, only 1,100 yards
from the southern fortifications of
Peronne, and separated from it by the
Somme and its marshes, was captured;
toward the south we got close to Bar-
leux and occupied the approaches to this
village, the last held by the Germans in
the loop. The battle was continued
throughout the night, and, in the morn-
ing, secured for us the complete oc-
cupation of the ridge which dominates
Biaches, and whose summit, covered by
the Maisonette estate, is at an elevation
of 318 feet, exactly 164 feet above the
water level of the Somme, (which, at
Peronne, is 154 feet above sea level.)

This point completely commands the town
of Peronne, its railroad stations, and
all the roads which radiate from the
capital of the old Vermandois district.

On the English front our allies met
with fierce resistance, which was concen-
trated from the banks of the Ancre
toward Thiepval, to the point of contact
with our left wing near Montauban. To
the south of Thiepval the Germans had
fortified a part of the ground by the
creation of a powerful redoubt, called the
Leipzig redoubt, at which they had been
working ceaselessly for twenty months.
In the afternoon of Friday, July 7, this
work, after a smashing bombardment by
British cannon, was the prize of a superb
assault. In other combats carried on to
the south, at La Boisselle, that is, on the
road to Bapaume, gained for our allies a
whole network of trenches on a front of
2,000 yards, and to a depth of 600 yards.
Between La Boisselle and Fricourt two
small woods were captured.

On the same day, July 7, there were
furious battles at Contalmaison, between
La Boisselle and Bazentin-the-less. The
Germans sent the Prussian Guard for-
ward at 7 o'clock in the morning. It was
repulsed and forced to retire to the north,
leaving the ground covered with dead and
abandoning 700 prisoners in the hands of
the English. The English, following up
this success, made a superb assault on
Contalmaison, which, at noon, gave them
the village; but a counterattack retook
it. However, they remained on its out-
skirts.

The following days were not less stir-
ring. On Saturday, July 8, the British
troops started from Montauban and the
wood of Bernafay toward the Trones
Wood to co-operate with our attack on
Hardecourt. While we were taking this
village they approached the wood, sup-
ported by the French infantry, and took
it. The enemy, coming back in dense
masses, was thrown back again.

On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, July
9, 10, and 11, the struggle was continued
in the Trones Wood and on its outskirts.
On the morning of July 11 it was almost
in the hands of our allies. A night as-
sault, preceded by a violent bombard-
ment, at the same time regained Cental-

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

1003

maison for them, and they strongly con-
solidated their position in the village.
This success was completed by the capt-
ure of the Mametz Wood.

The total of prisoners captured by the
English was 7,500 men. The battle be-
tween the Ancre and the Trones Wood
lasted without interruption for ten days
and ten nights; it won for our allies a
gain of from one and one-quarter to two
and one-half miles in advance of their
lines; the territory of five villages was
freed from German occupation.

In mid-July the Germans twice at-
tempted to retake from us the approaches
to Peronne, taking advantage of the thick
mists arising from the marshes and peat
mosses of the Somme. Thanks to this
veil of fog, on the evening of Saturday,
July 15, they made a sortie from Peronne
by the " Paris suburb." Creeping along
the banks between which sleeps the canal-
ized river, they pressed in our outposts
and got as far as the approaches to
Biaches. Violent assaults gained this vil-
lage for them. While this was going on
other German troops made their way up
the flanks of the Maisonette Hill, driving
in our outposts and taking possession of
the ridge. But their success was brief.
Our reserves retook the position. An-
other counterattack recovered Biaches for
us. Some enemy groups were able to
maintain themselves for a short time in a
little wood between the two positions.

The second attempt took place on Mon-
day evening, July 17, during torrential
rain, and was kept up during the night.
Repulsed in six assaults against the Mai-
sonette Ridge, the Germans, supported by
batteries installed on Mont Sain t-Quen tin,
above Peronne, succeeded in reaching the
heart of Biaches, thanks to the dead
weight of the successive masses of troops
launched in that direction. All day the
struggle went on in the ruins of the vil-
lage; our soldiers retook most of the
houses, the enemy holding his ground only
in the eastern part. During the forenoon
of Tuesday, July 18, he was driven from
the foothold to which he had been cling-
ing.

In the heart of the Santerre Plateau,
near Chilly, a village close to the impor-
tant railway station of Chaulnes, the Ger-

mans sketched a diversion by hurl-
ing themselves brusquely against our
trenches.

During the same period, on the British
front the fighting went on incessantly
without an instant's respite from Ovillers
— that is, from the approaches to the Val-
ley of the Ancre — as far as the narrow-
gauge railway from Albert to Peronne, on
the level' of Guillemont. The British ar-
tillery covered the German positions with
its fire, big mortars severely hammering
it; infantry attacks were sent forward
at several points on Thursday, July 13.

This bombardment of extreme violence
continued during the night of Thursday-
Friday, July 13-14. Before dawn, on the
day of our national festival, July 14, our
allies launched, on a front of four and
one-half miles, a powerful attack, carried
out with so much ardor that the first
lines immediately fell into their hands.
The enemy had intrenched in the hamlets
and woods, and it required terrific as-
saults to dislodge him. In the afternoon,
Bazentin-le- Petit, Bazentin - le - Grand,
Longueval, and the Trones' Wood were
taken and occupied. Of these different
positions the most important to the
enemy was Bazentin-le-Petit. Three
times the Germans directed counter-
attacks against this village in the
hope of retaking it; the last attack, car-
ried out with considerable forces, per-
mitted them to dislodge the English. But
the English returned to the charge and
once more took possession of Bazentin-le-
Petit. On this side the enemy only re-
ained a foothold in the southwestern part
of the Wood of Preuze, which separates
Bazentin-le-Petit from the district of
Contalmaison ; he was driven out in the
forenoon of July 17. During these com-
bats more than 2,000 Germans surren-
dered.

The fighting continued with the same
violence during the whole of Saturday,
July 15, and was equally favorable for
the English, whose front was extended
both east and west. The Delville Wood,
which spreads like a fan between the
road from Longueval to Flers and
Longueval to Ginchy, was completely
taken; and German counterattacks had
no result beyond causing heavy losses to

1004 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the assailants. To the north, and at
1,300 yards from Bazentin-le-Grand, the
Wood of Foureaux, which occupies the
culminating point of the Artois Ridge,
was approached. During the battle a
squadron of English horse charged the
enemy — the first intervention of British
cavalry since the battle of the Marne.
The Wood of Foureaux was not taken, but
our allies were able to organize its out-
skirts.

Sunday, July 16, was consecrated to
the consolidation of the ground gained.
On Monday, July 17, the British troops
resumed the fight. Near the Bapaume
road they attacked the village of Ovillers,
defended by a battalion of the Prussian
Guard, whose resistance was superb, but
the debris of that heroic troop, 124 men
and officers, were compelled to surrender.
For twenty months this village had with-
stood all the efforts of the Allies to take it.

On their right wing the English gained
a not less important success in capturing
the Waterlot Farm, whose large buildings
had been organized as a fortress. This
property is half way to Guillemont, a vil-
lage whose southern outlet is covered by
the French troops at Hardecourt. From
each of the three points, the Waterlot
Farm, the Wood of Trones, and Harde-
court, the distance to Combles is just over
two miles, and Combles is the principal
place between Albert and Peronne.

This English position, extending from
Longueval through the Delville Wood to
the Waterlot Farm, was the object on
Tuesday, July 18, of a violent counterat-
tack by the Germans. After haying cov-
ered the wood with tear-producing and
asphyxiating shells, they rushed to the
assault, and a very fierce struggle took
place.

During the first seventeen days of the
battle of the Somme the British forces
captured 10,779 men and 189 officers.
They also brought in 8 large mortars, 9
heavy cannon, 37 field guns, and 66 ma-
chine guns.

A part of this struggle took place
under the eyes of Kaiser Wilhelm, who
came to bring encouragement to his
troops and to study the situation with his
own eyes.

[Between July 20 and July 30 a san-
guinary battle was fought over the pos-
session of Delville Wood, which was
finally retaken by the British. Mean-
while the French advanced over a front
of several miles, and the allied line was
straightened out on the higher ground,
with steady advances over a front of
twenty to thirty miles, driving a wedge
into the Germans in the centre of Picardy
and imperiling their entire line in that
region. The battle is furiously proceed-
ing as this issue goes to press, with the
Allies slowly but steadily advancing.]

With the Germans on the Somme

By Cyril Brown

The Berlin Staff Correspondent of The New York Times .

The battle of the Somme, the bloodiest of the war, has bven raging now for two months
Upward of 1,500,000 men are locked in a death grapple. The awful music of great artillery
continues night and day, and desolation overwhelms village after village in the pathway of
the Allies. England and France now have the heaviest guns, the most ammunition, th&
strongest forces; and they seem also to have gained the upper hand in the fierce aerial fighting
that has become a special feature of the battle. Yet tne Germans, though dying by thousands,
are naturally inflicting still heavier Ibsstss upon the attacking forces, and they have given
comparatively little ground in the last month. Both sides still claim ultimate victory. In Mr.
Brown's article, written about the middle of August, we have a glimpse of the quieter aspects
of life behind the German trenches.

f |^ HE battle of the Somme as I have
seen it from the German side is

replete with impressions of can-
nonading of incessant violence,
cyclones of steel, and sudden squalls of
fire that wipe out whole villages in min-
utes, the hail of a thousand tornadoes
criss-crossing the ruined countryside, am-
munition that makes the mounds which I
had seen at Verdun look like ant hills,
mortar batteries as thick as mushrooms,
and then the singing, cheering pro-
cessions of flower-garlanded youngsters
and the silent tramp of the rested
veterans, and the motor pilgrimage of
pain intermingled with strings of am-
bulances loaded to capacity. •

It is just like other battles except that
on the Somme you cannot get away from
it. It haunts you while you are being kept
awake by the French airbombs, follows
you into the trench, is with you in the
high tree-tops and aeroplanes and other
high observation points. Pictorially here
is the same old front which has been
seen and described to a point of boredom,
but with a new sensation — the tingling
realization that here on the Somme front
the flower of the manhood of three
nations is locked in a death grapple,
fighting for the decision of the world
war, that it counts more men and guns,
more shells and dead and mangled to the
front foot than any battle in history.
FRENCH FLIERS AT WORK

War reporting with the Germans is
no longer a pleasant pastime, at least
not on the Somme. The very first night
out, French fliers wrecked my slumber

by liberally dropping bombs on the
French town in which I was quartered.
The mournful wail of a German mili-
tary siren heralded their approach. As
the booming German anti-aircraft guns
went into action one had the novel sen-
sation of lying abed and through a win-
dow seeing the fire points of German
shrapnel bursting about the flash of the
French aircraft, momentarily caught by
the German searchlights, but feeling
reasonably safe, as the French night-
moths generally attack railway stations.
Next morning, motoring out of the town,
it was interesting to note that for the
benefit of the German soldiery prac-
tically every street bore affixed to a
house a red sign reading, " Protection
from fliers," and pointing out the quick-
est way into bombproof sub-cellars of
the furthest front.

I dropped in at a hospital filled ex-
clusively with allied wounded, the local
Palais de Danse, whose mirrored walls*
multiplied the misery ad infinitum. * * *
Across the street, at the hospital for
Germans, motor ambulances arrived in
a steady procession. The wounded were
carried in at one door and the dead out
another while the French townspeople
looked on with ill-concealed hatred. The
German losses, I am told, are believed to
average only one-third of the Allies'
losses, as near as can be estimated.
RAISING OATS UNDER FIRE

It is worthy of notice that Germany's
defensive fight against England, the
" hunger war," is being carried right up
to the trenches. Every arable square

1006 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

inch in this part of France in German
hands which I have seen is under cul-
tivation, and promises a bumper crop of
rye, oats, wheat, and barley, little dam-
aged by the battle of the Somme except
immediately back of the trenches and
about the villages which are under heavy
fire. French civilians were already
busy getting in the harvest, ably as-
sisted by the German reserves, and it
was a paradoxical sight to pass for miles
American harvesters, reapers, and bind-
ers and motor threshing machines,
working peacefully within the roar and
range of the guns.

Motor anti-aircraft guns were almost
as thick in the fields as the American
harvesters, indicating the heightened
French aerial activity on the Somme,
where the French and English flying
corps appear to be at the very top of
their form.

The German fliers are forced as never
before to extend themselves barely to
hold their own and to keep the score
a few points ahead of the allied fliers,
who appear to have greatly outnumbered
them at the beginning of the offensive.
The Fokker fighters have evened up the
numerical handicap by greater individual
brilliancy.

Still another phase of the food war is
to be seen here at the front. The aristo-
cratic old Colonel showed me part of his
regimental piggeries, ten very fat,
grunting hogs, so busy eating that they
paid no attention to the correspondents
or the French shells howling overhead.
The titled swineherd told me that each
German company at the front now has
a troop of ten hogs to eat up its food
scraps. Efficiency could go no further.
CARRIER PIGEONS IN USE

An apparently deserted moving van,
stranded in a field, aroused curiosity to
the stopping point. It proved to be a
carrier pigeon camp. Owing to the damp,
unfavorable flying weather the little
feathered dispatch carriers, each with a
metal number fastened about its neck,
were resting inside the van in numbered
crates. Absolute military order and dis-
cipline prevailed in the carrier pigeon
camp.

These unneutral birds are carried in

crates into the front trenches at night
and principally used when the drum-
fire has destroyed the telephone wires,
thus making impossible all other means
of getting messages back to the division
headquarters. It is in these times that
the carrier pigeons prove of the highest
military value, winging their way swiftly
and surely through the shellfire. And
though the casualties are heavy in the
pigeon corps Germany's pigeon reserves
are said to be inexhaustible.

The carrier pigeons are also used for
transmitting dispatches and particularly
photographic films from aeroplanes op-
erating over the allied lines. For the lat-
ter purpose a neat little leather harness,
with a long, slender tube is attached to
a band under the pigeon's body.

The penultimate front and its immedi-
ate rear are in general more important
than the first-line trenches for sizing up
the present condition and the prospects
of the modern battle. Here the most
significant fact was the right of the
" shiller " divisions behind the front — the
uniformed laborers engaged in laying line
after line of field fortifications, digging
and delving as if against time. For the
Germans, while not admitting the neces-
sity, are, nevertheless, preparing to de-
fend every foot of French soil by a stand
every few hundred yards or so.
HEAVY MORTARS IN ACTION

I joined the gunners at a kicking and
snorting mortar battery, consisting of
four giant bucking broncos of steel, which
threw up their tails viciously at every
shot and pawed the runway with their
caterpillar feet. Salvos were being fired
on schedule time, one salvo a minute.

Standing directly behind the first mor-
tar and looking about 200 yards up into
the air, I saw the heavy projectile in
flight at the start of its journey, visible
for just a few seconds. Timing the
projectile, I found it was fifty-nine sec-
onds before it was heard to burst at its
destination. * * *

The faces of the German gunners told
their own story. The good nature of
these skilled Teuton mechanics had giver*
place to a grim set expression as if biting
their jaws together and nerving them-

A SIXTEEN-INCH SHELL

Hoisting a Monster Shell to Feed the Lord of Battle Shown on the

Reverse of This Page.

(Official Photograph.)

WITH THE GERMANS ON THE SOMME

1007

selves to fight off the physical fatigue
of long weeks of continued cannonading.
In their shirtsleeves and perspiring, with
facial muscles drawn and strained, they
reminded me of overtrained athletes to-
ward the end of a hard-fought long-dis-
tance race who realized that they must
not " crack " before breasting the tape.
They continued working their battery
automatically, with the disciplined per-
fection and finished form of veterans.

I walked down a narrow, winding path-
way through a jungle of underbrush full
of infantry reserves. It was the strang-
est gypsy colony I had seen on any front.
The men were living in galvanized zimc
sheds, semi-cylinders about ten feet in
diameter, easily transportable, quickly
set up, absolutely rainproof, and resem-
bling miniature models of the Zeppelin
hangars. Eight men could sleep beneath
each zinc dome.

These reserves were enjoying a well-
earned rest. After two weeks in the hell
of the first trenches under fire, they were
in particularly high spirits. Most of
them were engaged in beautifying their
sylvan quarters, building rustic fences
about their zinc huts and ornamenting
the pathways with rustic borders.
DESTROYING BALLOONS

On the way to the trenches I stopped to
see a captive balloon company. Forty
men were just dragging an inflated yel-
low bag from its hangar, while the offi-
cers tested it thoroughly preparatory to
going up.

I gathered that captive ballooning on
the Somme is more thrillingly dangerous
than on any other front. The commander
told me how they are constantly pestered
by the French fliers, whose latest dodge
is to swoop down on the balloons and
shoot fire darts into them at close range.

He showed me one that had failed to
catch fire, a vicious-looking steel thing a
foot and a half long, with a rocketlike
head.

I also was introduced to one of his
youngsters, who had a very narrow es-
cape from death during an attack by a
French aviator on a balloon. This was
Lieutenant Ruthenburg, who said:

"I was up 1,800 feet when a French
aeroplane approached and shot fire darts
at the bag. I did not stop to ascertain
the damage, for if you do not leap out of
the gondola in the nick of time you run
the risk of getting caught under the
burning envelope or of the balloon drop-
ping on top of you. I leaped overboard
promptly with my parachute. I fell 150
feet before it opened, but landed un-
scratched, only to find the balloon had
not been hit by the French aviator at all."

The intensity of the artillery fire on the
Somme makes the utmost demands on the
skill and endurance and nerves of the
captive ballooners here, who admittedly
have their hands full to hold their own,
but appear to be doing it. In no fighting
arm on the Somme front is the ascen-
dency so marked as to justify sweeping
generalizations, much less prophecy. At
first blush there seems to be little to
choose between the locked foes. A longer
study of the great battle front from all
angles tends to correct this impression,
and warrants the opinion that the mar-
gin of Teuton supremacy on the ground
is small, but adequate for all practical
purposes, while in the air it is still small-
er, but enough to turn the very slow
scales of battles. If the Teutons can
maintain this margin of safety — and I
saw no reason here for believing they
could not — they have ultimate victory in
the battle of the Somme clinched.

P: The Battle of Galicia

[TRANSLATED FOR CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE FROM THE RUSSIAN OF V. PHILATOFF]

SCORCHING heat, and clouds of
dust over the highways from the
constant march of columns of in-
fantry and cavalry. They are
manoeuvring in the rear; these ma-
noeuvring groups are not the striking
units; they are the destruction-bringing
units destined to be wedged into the
Austrian lines, whose front has been
pierced by the striking units ahead. We
see, moving at full speed in clouds of
dust, boxes of cartridges and shells; au-
tomobiles seemingly carrying very small
loads — only a few dozen flat wooden
boxes with rope handles; precious loads,
to be carried at full speed — boxes of
munitions.

They meet the wagons of tho sanitary
department going in the opposite direc-
tion— and the blue-gray columns of pris-
oners. It is most remarkable that, in
both streams, the men are cheerful. Our
wounded are quite enthusiastic.

One of these was a non-commissioned
officer, about 30, who lay quiet — wounded
in the chest and hip. He said:

" I was brought back from their second
line. When we seized their first line we
found nothing to take; only a few scat-
tered munitions — and their dead. They
immediately began a counterattack. We
had not even the time to pull up the ma-
chine guns when we saw them coming on
in massed formation at a run. I could
see it was not more than a verst [about
1,200 yards] to their second line. And I
said to my boys : ' When they get closer
we shall run out to meet them, but in
the meantime — shoot! ' Then I saw our
battalion commander [Major] running
toward us, shouting: ' Get ready for an
attack! ' As soon as they were between
150 and 100 paces from us our boys
yelled ' Hurrah ! ' and rushed at them
like one man.

"As I ran I glanced right and left.
It was a bit frightful — yelling, firing
their rifles, some hatless, some toppling
over — all running. As was expected, the
Austrians were taken by surprise; some

of them surrendered; others attempted
to run back; it was a general stew! Not
many of our boys stayed with the prison-
ers; they all ran after the men who were
running away. And all the time their
artillery was giving it hot to whoever
happened to be there, whether they were
our boys or theirs.

" When we were nearly at the trenches
we were a good deal fewer ; some were
killed, some wounded, and some com-
pletely out of breath. I got almost to
the wires ; then I dropped ; my heart was
squeezed out and my throat was parched.
I was not on the ground a moment —
there were five others with me — when
an Austrian passed me — bzz! — right into
the wires! I just raised my rifle and
got him in the back.

" When I looked back there were many
of our soldiers around; the officer com-
manding the half company crawled into
the ditch and said : * Boys, come ahead !
Forward! We've got them with a single
blow! * He crossed himself and sprang
to his feet, shouting 'Hurrah!' and we
all followed into the passage where my
Austrian fell. We only stopped to pull
up the posts; but wherever the wires had
been broken by our shells we rushed on
without stopping; in a minute we had
jumped into the trench. There were a
good many Austrians there, but it was a
bit awkward for them. Five of us, jump-
ing into the trench, fired right and left;
but it was impossible for the Austrians
to fire; they would have killed too many
of their own men. At one go we cleared
fifty or sixty yards of the trench. Then
some of bur boys came up and began
firing both ways.

" Well, it was quite impossible for the
Austrians to hold on in the trench it-
self, and those of them who crowded into
the side trenches had to surrender with-
out a struggle. They let us take six ma-
chine guns in good shape and four bomb-
throwers — also more than 400 prison-
ers— all that was left of a battalion
[1,000 men.] We called on our reserve

THE BATTLE OF G ALICIA

1009

company for reinforcements. But before
we had time to look round and find out
where their third line was the shells
began to rain on us; what with the dust
and smoke it got quite dark.

"I pressed close to the wall of
the trench. Then — hu-hu ! — something
splashed into the trench quite close to
me, fire blazed like lightning in my eyes.
* * * When I came to I realized that
I was seated against the wall of the
trench, with two of our boys lying at my
feet, and the whole trench was smashed
up. I tried to stand up, but there was a
pain in my leg, and my whole right side
wouldn't work. But I felt I was alive.
Some of our boys came up and bandaged
me. I lay in the trench until dark; when
the sanitary department came to carry
me out our battalion commander came to
bid me good-bye. We kissed each other,
and he promised to mention me for a
second degree St. George's Cross! " He
already had the fourth and third de-
grees.

II.

The nearer we come to the battle
front the more crowded becomes the
traffic. Our automobile needs careful
steering and often has to stop, but we
are all in a hurry, and want to go ahead
at full speed. In the midst of it all, a
misjudged turn — something cracks — we
are* all pushed to one side; the machine
stops. * * * I continue my journey
with a doctor in his gig, who is hurrying
to the aid of a wounded Captain. We
are able soon to distinguish the explosion
of the enemy shells from our own guns;
the shells cutting their way through the
air, whistling and hissing; that terrify-
ing hiss, followed by an explosion, which
means the shattering of human bodies,
many of them maimed for life.

We follow a deep ravine; about 1,200
yards further lies a thick gray mist,
from the midst of which come thunder
and lightning. That means a battery of
our guns. We leave the horses behind,
and walk forward. No one pays the
slightest attention to us. They are carry-
ing heavy black shells by hand; the shells
weigh ninety pounds each; no wonder the
men's muscles are strained to the utmost,
as they push them into the guns; the

shining brass case glides lightly for-
ward, the catch snaps, and then the shot
roars out, deafening us. People no longer
speak; they yell, for every one is deafened
by the roar of the guns.

Somewhat to the side, behind an im-
provised curtain of tarred cloth, lies our
Captain, a young man, with a bandaged
shoulder, the sleeve of his shirt cut, and
his coat thrown over the other shoulder
only. But his face is not pale, and he is
quite cheerful. * * *

Then the doctor and I walk over to
look at the guns. The six-inch howitzers
are courtesying (from the recoil) as they
send out their shells. In shape and color
they remind us of a row of frogs in a
marsh.

Toward evening the infantry is going
to begin to force its way across the river.
I am very anxious to go forward to see,
but the commanding officer refuses to
allow me until after dark. So I remain,
possessing my soul in patience and listen-
ing to the music of the artillery.

III.

The sun was moving toward the Car-
pathian Mountains, which were not more
than seventy miles away. Its rays gild-
ed the quaint Galician landscape. The
mountain ridges here rise parallel to each
other, like petrified waves, and the deep
valleys between them were already dark-
ened by the shadows of evening. But
the beauties of the landscape do not com-
pare with the joyful sight which met my
eyes — our artillery, hammering away in
a businesslike fashion at the Austrians,
while they rather feebly replied; our
guns sending stroke after stroke, in the
spirit of the old Slavonic challenge,
" We have set forth ! " But in the work
of the Austrians one feels a disconcerted
spirit.

Our attack is to begin as soon as the
sun sets. It will not be easy; the posi-
tions are well fortified. And in the last
five months the Austrians have not been
napping. They have done a good deal of
barbed-wire knitting, strengthening their
trenches and digging rabbit holes.

As soon as darkness came on, the whole
line of artillery fire grew perceptibly
calmer. Only rifle fire, with an occa-

1010 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

sional machine gun, continued to increase.
* * * A skyrocket flies up into the
night; then another and another. The
searchlights begin to blaze.

From the observation post we can
clearly see the explosions on the other
side. They flash like lightning, but in
the opposite direction — from earth to
heaven. The shrapnels look like falling
stars — falling singly and in groups.

More explanations by telephone, and
my Lieutenant says: "They are start-
ing! "

Explosions can no longer be seen.
Heavy shells are being sent against the
Austrian artillery. Of course, fire of
this kind, (censor,) but it is very im-
portant: First of all, it makes the enemy
nervous, so that they cannot attend to
their own fire with full concentration;
and if we succeed in hitting an Austrian
battery a great gain is immediately ap-
parent, for that battery's regular work
is instantly upset.

At first the Austrians answered our
artillery fire. Then, for two or three
minutes, they were silent; longer, per-
haps, for in such strenuous surroundings
it is almost impossible to judge time ac-
curately. Rifle fire increased steadily,
both sides evidently shooting. The ma-
chine guns keep up their song; the Aus-
trians are evidently running the cartridge
ribbons through them gayly.

All at once the whole line of Austrian
guns sent up a single roar, all firing to-
gether.

"Now, hold tight!" said an artillery-
man, crouching down. The Austrians
had been saving their fire, economizing
in case of a possible attack. Now they
opened with regular hurricane fire.

The Lieutenant remains at the tele-
phone, his superior officer advancing
toward the river. I follow him. We go
forward, bending close to the ground, for
we may fall in with a few stray Aus-
trian bullets here. After going a few
paces downward a whole loop of the river
comes suddenly into view. A fugitive ray
of white light runs tremulously over the
grass and shrubs along the shore; when
it stops for a few seconds everything
looks as if plunged in liquid silver, and
each little bush casts a long, black shadow

Over the line of the river bank dozens of
shrapnel shells are exploding; at times
they break over the water, and then the
river seethes, as if boiling, under the
lash ,of hundreds of bullets.

"They are exhausting their force in
an effort to take the river!" said the
Captain.

" Is that what you call a curtain of
fire?"

" Yes, and a pretty solid one, too!"

I have served throughout the campaign.
Until Verdun the curtain of fire had
only reached an elementary stage. Gen-
erally, in repelling an attack, the prac-
tice had been to fire at the attacking
party, at the " living target," as we used
to say. The only instance I had seen of
firing, not at the attacking party, but in
front of them, was at the end of May,
1915, in General Brusiloff's army. The
Teutons had broken through our front at
Moszieska, (south of the Lemberg-Prze-
mysl railway,) and their offensive was
stopped by our barrier fire.

But now the curtain of fire is growing
to be a normal phenomenon, in meeting
every important attack. It is founded
chiefly on the psychological effect. The
picture now before my eyes gave me a
clearer idea of what a curtain of fire is.
Our men had to advance to the river
* * * and to cross it. So the Aus-
trians aimed, not at the trenches, nor in
front of them, but at the river bank
close to the water, where there were no
attacking columns yet, but where they
must go in order to cross the river, bring-
ing with them boats or rafts, and build-
ing bridges.

When the fire is aimed directly at the
attacking party the only possible way of
escape lies in advancing, because the
shrapnel bullets and broken pieces of the
shells (which burst in the air) fly past
their target. If the attacking party
stops, they will be wiped out by steel and
fire. Therefore, it is more profitable for
them to press ahead. The enemy's fire
then advances with them, and so practi-
cally drives them forward to the attack.

The curtain of fire, on the contrary,
is well in front of you and you must con-
sciously push your head into this guillo-
tine. It is as if, in a thunderstorm, you

THE BATTLE OF G ALICIA

1011

were running from door to door; as you
advance, the drops of steel become fewer,
but heavier.

The Captain, as an experienced artiller-
ist, had denned the situation accurately
at the start; and our attacking parties
were drawn back, without entering the
zone of the fire screen.

The Austrian s continued their fire for
thirty or forty minutes. Then realizing
that the danger was over, they carried
their fire further on, aiming at our
trenches, our artillery, and, in general,
the rear of our positions. A few shrap-
nel shells burst over the slope on which
we 'were lying, so we decided to move
back to the cover of the observation post.
It (censor) but it would shelter us from
the shrapnel.

Taking a couple of hours to rest, we
organized the attack once more, with
everything afire and aflame. Then,
somewhere far ahead, we hear our men
shouting " Hurrah ! " This means that,
at some point, they have got across the
river and are charging with the bayonet.

Dawn is near. Our faces drawn and
blanched with fatigue, we drink some tea
in the sod hut of the observation post.
Then we go over to the staff post of the

th Infantry Regiment.

IV.

Immediately after this I went south to
the point where the River Stripa had
already been crossed.

Crossing the Stripa ! — Perfectly ridicu-
lous! A little stream, not more than
thirty-five paces wide, and quite shal-
low. The one difficulty is, that it flows
through a marsh, in some places three-
quarters of a mile wide. Needless to say,
when Autumn comes, it will be greatly-
dried up, but just at present it is a seri-
ous material obstacle.

And how the Austrians have fortified
it! They have dug many trenches, pro-
tecting them with barbed wire entangle-
ments, charged with strong currents of
electricity. And all' this has been
smashed and destroyed, because they
were not strong enough to defend it.

It is beyond question that the Aus-
trians placed their reliance on the Stripa,
keeping their main forces further north,
on the line between Lemberg and Tar-
nopol. But their line was broken through,
to the south, close to the mouth of the
Stripa. The fighting is on the further
(west) bank there now, while only a
short time ago both banks were in the
hands of the Austrians. On this (east)
side the trenches have been hammered
to pieces, for we struck at them first,
and with great care. In themselves the
trenches are not particularly strong; they
are pretty deep, with numbers and with
loopholes for rifle fire, and not very
strongly covered. The wire entangle-
ments are also pretty thick and well
made, but nothing extraordinary. The
descent to the river is very steep, and
there is a military bridge at the bottom,
which spans both the stream and the
marshes. It has suffered noticeably by
shell fire, besides which the Austrians
tried to set fire to it. But hurriedly
mended by our engineers, it serves well
enough for our men to cross over. Even
the artillery was able to get over, and
is booming away ahead somewhere on
the Austrian (west) side of the river.

At the Austrian end of the bridge are
two half-burned corpses; sappers who
died the death of the brave when the
bridge was burning.

Beside the road, down the slope, there
used to stand a straight row of village
huts; now nothing is left of them except
a few bricks and some charred posts. A
good many cellars have been adapted for
human habitation.

Only yesterday the battle was seeth-
ing at this spot. Now it is strewn with
silent corpses, abandoned rifles, and car-
tridges. Our medical corps are walking
this way and that, looking for the
wounded. In battles like this we gather
in a good many of them. The Austrians
in their hurried retreat have no time
to pick them up, and we take possession
of the battlefields, with all their
trophies.

How England's Blockade Is Operated

By Sir Frank Newnes

Assistant Secretary of the Committee on Detention of Neutral Ships

Sir Frank Newnes, the London pub'
Usher, who is performing important du-
ties in the Blockade Committee headed by
Lord Peel, recently gave the members of
the American Luncheon Club the most de-
tailed description of the British system of
blockade thus far offered to the public.
Remarking that the blockade began with
the Order in Council of March 11, 1915,
and that the total stoppage of Germany's
trade through neutrals has been an enor-
mous task, he explained the methods used
as follows :

EVERY ship east or west bound
passing up or down the English
Channel or by the north of Scot-
land is stopped by one of the
British men-of-war, boarded, and ex-
amined. These ships are armed mer-
chantmen and are on duty right across
from the north of Scotland to Norway,
one ship every twenty miles — they are
manned by the Royal Naval Reserve men
from the mercantile marine who are
used to examining ships' papers and
documents. A copy of the ship's mani-
fest is then wired up to London — and to
give you some idea of the labor involved
some ships have between 300 and 600 dif-
ferent descriptions of goods on board, all
of which have to be sent out — and thus
these telegrams run to many thousands
of words.

The telegraphed manifest goes at once
before the Contraband Committee, which
sits every day and all day, presided over
by E. M. Pollock, King's Counsel and
Member of Parliament for Warwick. The
committee considers each item, and if
it has any reasonable suspicion that any
items are destined for the enemy the
ship will be detained and ordered to un-
load the suspected items at a suitable
port. If she has nothing suspicious the
ship can proceed at once; and I may say
that the Contraband Committee works
so expeditiously that its decision on the

ship or goods is nearly always given the
same day that the manifest is put be-
fore it.

When the manifest is telegraphed to
the Contraband Committee it is also
telegraphed to the War Trade Intelli-
gence Department, which has been cre-
ated for the purpose of supplying in-
formation on which the Contraband Com-
mittee can decide whether certain goods
should be allowed to go forward or not.

In addition to the Contraband Com-
mittee there is the Enemy Exports Com-
mittee, presided over by Commander
Leverton Harris, M. P., which deals with
goods exported from Germany. This is
a much simpler task than dealing with
imports into Germany, as America and
other countries, for the purpose of their
customs, already require that the coun-
try of origin shall be given, and the ef-
fect has been that the export trade of
Germany was almost immediately killed,
and there is no doubt that this has been
one of the great causes in the fall of the
mark, as it compels Germany to pay in
gold and not in goods.

When suspect goods are unloaded from
a ship they are at once put into " prize,"
and the owner of the goods has to make
a claim for their restitution and must
bring an action for their recovery. Such
actions are tried in the Admiralty Court,
which is presided over by Sir Samuel
Evans; and the goods are released, con-
demned, or dealt with as the court may
deem just.

I have already told you that the de-
sire of the British Government is to
carry out this blockade with as little de-
lay or inconvenience to neutrals as is
possible, arid I will now give you some
of the arrangements made to insure
this:

(1) Guarantees by importers — Agree-
ments have been made with repre-
sentative associations of merchants in

HOW ENGLAND'S BLOCKADE IS OPERATED

1013

neutral countries, under which they un-
dertake that goods consigned to them will
not be exported to Germany nor be used
in the manufacture of goods which are
for export to Germany. The first of
these was the Netherlands Oversea Trust,
which was so successful that similar as-
sociations were formed in other countries
— in Denmark the Danish Merchants'
Guild, and in Switzerland the Societe
Surveillance Suisse.

Goods can now be exported from this
country practically under license only,
and such licenses are usually granted if
the goods are consigned to these associa-
tions.

(2) Agreements with shipping lines —
Agreements have been made with many
shipping lines under which their ships
are allowed to go forward, even if they
have contraband on board or are carry-
ing goods which our authorities suspect
are for the enemy, on their undertaking
to return such goods to this country for
the prize court or to retain them in a
Jieutral country until after the war. And
in addition to this:

(3) Bunker coal from any port in the
British Empire is refused to neutral ships
unless they comply with certain condi-
tions which insure that the goods they
carry do not go to the enemy.

Both these classes of ships are called
" white ships," and they are a large and
increasing number, and most of the lead-
ing lines have made such arrangements.
I would strongly advise any of you, when
shipping goods, to see that the ship is a
"white ship." If a ship is not a
"white ship," there is, of course, a pre-
sumption that it is or may be carrying
suspected goods, and thus it may be de-
layed and you suffer the suspicion at-
taching to other people's goods.

(4) Skinner Scheme— This is a scheme

which was suggested by Mr. Skinner, the
American Consul General in London. It
is this : A department has been opened in
the British Embassy at Washington to
which an American exporter can go and
give particulars of the nature and amount
of the goods he desires to export, and also
the name of the consignee. The depart-
ment will at once cable here to the Con-
traband Committee, who will cable him
whether his goods would pass the block-
ade or not, and thus he can decide wheth-
er to ship them. If he ships the goods,
the papers are marked accordingly, and
some American lines will now take only
goods which have passed the Skinner
scheme.

(5) Rationing — It has been found that
since the war broke out certain neutral
countries have been importing a vastly
increased amount of certain goods beyond
their pre-war and normal requirements,
and unless they were formerly importing
large quantities of these goods from Ger-
many and Austria there is an overwhelm-
ing presumption that they were imported
for the purpose of re-export to Germany,
and there is no doubt that this was done
on a large scale.

To avoid this the system of rationing
has been adopted under which the im-
port of a given article into a neutral
country is limited to the amount of its
true domestic requirements. It is a very
fair system, allowing as it does any neu-
tral to carry on its own legitimate trade
and to supply its own wants.

You will note thus that it may happen
that when you apply to the War Trade
Department for a license to export cer-
tain articles to neutral countries it may
be refused not because there is any
doubt in regard to your consignee, but
for the reason that the country has al-
ready been supplied with the rationed
amount of such goods.

The British Trade Blacklist an Object
of Controversy

GREAT BRITAIN'S announcement
on July 18 of a list of more than
eighty firms in the United
States with whom British sub-
jects were forbidden to trade has met
with almost universal condemnation in
this country, and has been made the sub-
ject of a vigorous note of protest by the
State Department at Washington, the
text of which is printed herewith. As
stated in that note, the blacklist seems
to the Government of the United States
"to embody a policy of arbitrary inter-
ference with neutral trade against which
it is its duty to protest in the most de-
cided terms."

The effect of a statutory boycott of
this kind, it is contended, is to prevent
even neutrals from trading with the
blacklisted firms for fear of incurring the
displeasure of the British blockading
fleet, and thus ultimately to ruin the con-
cerns named. Even some British papers,
such as The Manchester Guardian, have
supported the view of the United States,
holding that the blacklist is ethically un-
sound, tending to establish a theory of
international law which is essentially
vicious, and which England herself will
have cause to regret later when she may
herself be a neutral.

The British Government, on the other
hand, is inclined to stand firmly on the
ground taken. " Personally," says Lord
Robert Cecil, Minister of War Trade, "I
cannot see any way by which we can
forego our undoubted right to prevent
our subjects from providing resources of
trade to our enemies. There is not like-
ly to be any change in the policy of the
Allies as a result of neutral protests.
Italy in her action in announcing a black-
list is likewise merely following the
policy outlined at the Paris conference."
The British Foreign Office also pointed
out the fact that " long before the British
statutory blacklist was put into operation
the French Government prohibited its
nationals from doing any business with

any enemy subject." An official of that
office gave the following to the press:

From strictly legal points of view the black-
list system is a piece of purely domestic leg-
islation which simply prohibits British sub-
jects from dealing with certain persons. The
right of any Government to impose such pro-
hibition on its own nationals is hardly open
to dispute.

I would quote on this point from Sir Ed-
ward Grey's reply to the American Ambas-
sador on Feb. 16 last : " His Majesty's Gov-
ernment readily admit the right of persons of
any nationality resident in the United States
to engage in legitimate commercial transac-
tions with any other persons. They cannot
admit, however, that this right can in any
way limit the right of other Governments to
restrict the commercial activities of their na-
tionals in any manner which may seem de-
sirable to them, by the imposition of prohibi-
tions and penalties which are operative solely
upon persons under their jurisdiction."

Apart from the question of international
law there is a further question as to whether
we have done something which is unreason-
able, or should seem unjust. The old English
definition of the word enemy was a person
domiciled in enemy territory, and had as its
obvious basis a desire only to hit at individ-
uals in so far as they were in a position to JB
help their belligerent State. Unfortunately,
in modern conditions of commerce, credit and
communication, a German firm in America
can help Germany in many ways, at least as
much and sometimes more than a firm of
the same standing in Germany. We do not
criticise such firms for so doing, but is it
unreasonable that we should in these cases
refuse to allow their available capital to be
swelled, or their position to be maintained by
trading with us? Is it unreasonable that we
should say that if a firm is really out to help
our enemies it shall not at the same time en-
joy all the benefits of friendly commercial
intercourse with our country?

The blacklist of the Allies extends to
all neutral countries, and has met with
protest in many of these besides the
United States. The total number of boy-
cotted firms exceeds 1,500, as follows:
Spain, 167; Brazil, 140; Netherlands, 120;
Argentina and Uruguay, 95; Morocco, 88;
Portuguese East and West Africa,
Guinea, and Rio Muni, 87; Japan, 86;
United States, 85; Norway, 83; Portugal,
79; Sweden, 72; Netherlands and East

THE BRITISH TRADE BLACKLIST

1015

Indies, 70; Ecuador, 69; Persia, 56;
Greece, 50; Philippines, 44; Peru, 41;
Chile, 35; Bolivia, 22; Cuba, 10; Central
America, 5; Paraguay, 3; Colombia, 1.

The British Government promptly fol-
lowed its blacklist announcement with
modifying explanations, which, though
not causing any alteration in the formal
protest of the United States, somewhat
calmed public opinion in this country.
Ambassador Spring-Rice held several
conferences with Acting Secretary Polk
at Washington, in which he gave assur-
ances that the blacklist did not have the
far-reaching application imputed to it;
that it would not affect existing con-
tracts, and would not be extended to those
who traded with blacklisted firms. The
text of the British memorandum on

whose strength Sir Cecil Spring-Rice
made these statements is in part as fol-
lows:

There is no idea of blacklisting a neutral
firm merely because it continues to do busi-
ness with a firm that is blacklisted, but if a
neutral firm habitually and systematically
acted as cover for a blacklisted firm, cases
would be different.

Regarding payments to blacklisted firms,
our action does not affect payments by neu-
trals, and we habitually grant licenses to
British firms to pay current debts to black-
listed firms, unless it is clear beyond doubt
that such payments would be passed on to or
create a credit for enemies in enemy terri-
tory.

The United States remains convinced
that the Allies' plan of individual boycott
is a pernicious mistake, and the British
Government's reply to the appended note
is awaited with interest.

Text of American Note on British Blacklist

E United States Government for-
JL mally protested against the British
commercial blacklist in the follow-
ing note, telegraphed by Frank L. Polk,
Acting Secretary of State, to Walter
Hines Page, American Ambassador in
London :

Department of State,
Washington, July 26, 1916.

You are instructed to deliver to Sir Edward
Grey a formal note on the subject of the
Enemy Trading act, textually as follows :

" The announcement that his Britannic
Majesty's Government has placed the names
of certain persons, firms, and corporations
in the United States upon a prescriptive
' blacklist ' and has forbidden all financial
or commercial dealings between them and
citizens of Great Britain has been received
with the most painful surprise by the people
and Government of the United States, and
seems to the Government of the United States
to embody a policy of arbitrary interference
with neutral trade against which it is its
duty to protest in the most decided terms.

" The scope and effect of the policy are
extraordinary. British steamship companies
will not accept cargoes from the proscribed
firms or persons or transport their goods
to any port, and steamship lines under neu-
tral ownership understand that if they accept
freight from them they are likely to be denied
coal at British ports and excluded from
other privileges which they have usually en-
joyed, and may themselves be put upon the
blacklist. Neutral bankers refuse loans to
those on the list and neutral merchants de-

cline to contract for their goods, fearing a
like proscription. It appears that British
officials regard the prohibitions of the black-
list as applicable to domestic commercial
transactions in foreign countries as well as
in Great Britain and her dependencies, for
Americans doing business in foreign countries
have been put on notice that their dealings
with blacklisted firms are to be regarded as
subject to veto by the British Government.
By the same principle Americans in the
United States might be made subject to simi-
lar punitive action if they were found dealing
with any of their own countrymen whose
names had thus been listed.

" The harsh and even disastrous effects
of this policy upon the trade of the United
States and upon the neutral rights upon
which it will not fail to insist are obvious.
Upon the list of those proscribed and in effect
shut out from the general commerce of the
world may be found American concerns which
are engaged in large commercial operations
as importers of foreign products and
materials and as distributers of American
products and manufactures to foreign coun-
tries and which constitute important chan-
nels through which American trade reaches
the outside world. Their foreign affiliations
may have been fostered for many years, and
when once broken cannot easily or promptly
be re-established.

" Other concerns may be put upon the list
at any time and without notice. It is under-
stood that additions to the proscription may
be made ' whenever on account of enemy
nationality or enemy association of such
persons or bodies of persons it appears to his
Majesty expedient to do so.' The possibilities

1016 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

of undeserved injury to American citizens
from such measures, arbitrarily taken, and
of serious and incalculable interruptions of
American trade are without limit.

" It has been stated on behalf of his
Majesty's Government that these measures
were aimed only at the enemies of Great
Britain and would be adopted and enforced
with strict regard to the rights of neutrals
and with the least possible detriment to
neutral trade ; but it is evident that they are
inevitably and essentially inconsistent with
the rights of the citizens of all the nations
not involved in war. The Government of
the United States begs to remind the Gov-
ernment of his Britannic Majesty that citi-
zens of the United States are entirely within
their rights in attempting to trade with the
people or the Governments of any of the
nations now at war, subject only to well-
defined international practices and under-
standings which the Government of the
United States deems the Government of Great
Britain to have too lightly and too frequently
disregarded.

" There are well-known remedies and pen-
alties for breaches of blockade, where the
blockade is real and in fact effective, for
trade in contraband, for every unneutral act
by whomsoever attempted. The Government
of the United States cannot consent to see
those remedies and penalties altered or ex-
tended at the will of a single power or group
of powers to the injury of its own citizens
or in derogation of its own rights. Conspicu-
ous among the principles which the civilized
nations of the world have accepted for the
safeguarding of the rights of neutrals is the
just and honorable principle that neutrals
may not be condemned nor their goods con-
fiscated except upon fair adjudication and
after an opportunity to be heard in prize
courts or elsewhere. Such safeguards the
blacklist brushes aside. It condemns without
hearing, without notice, and in advance. It
is manifestly out of the question that the

Government of the United States should ac-
quiesce in such methods or applications of
punishment to its citizens.

UNNEUTRAL FIRMS NOT
SHIELDED

" Whatever may be said with regard to the
legality, in the view of international obli-
gation, of the act of Parliament upon which
the practice of the blacklist as now employed
by his Majesty's Government is understood
to be based, the Government of the United
States is constrained to regard that practice
as inconsistent with that true justice, sincere
amity, and impartial fairness which should
characterize the dealings of friendly Gov-
ernments with one another. The spirit of
reciprocal trade between the United States
and Great Britain, the privilege long accorded
to the nationals of each to come and go with
their ships and cargoes, to use each the
other's shipping, and be served each by the
other's merchants is very seriously impaired
by arbitrary and sweeping practices such as
this.

" There is no purpose or inclination on the
part of the Government of the United States
to shield American citizens or business houses
in any way from the legitimate consequences
of unneutral acts or practices ; it is quite
willing that they should suffer the appro-
priate penalties which international law and
the usage of nations have sanctioned ; but
his Britannic Majesty's Government cannot
expect the Government of the United States
to consent to see its citizens put upon an
ex parte blacklist without calling the atten-
tion of his Majesty's Government, in the
gravest terms, to the many serious conse-
quences to neutral right and neutral relations
which such an act must necessarily involve.
It hopes and believes that his Majesty's
Government, in its natural absorption in a
single pressing object of policy, has acted
without a full realization of the many unde-
sired and undesirable results that might
ensue. "POLK, Acting."

The Fryatt Case

A British Sea Captain Executed by Germans for Trying to

Ram a Submarine

CAPTAIN CHARLES FRYATT,
master of the Great Eastern
Railway's steamer Brussels, which
was captured by German war-
ships on June 23, 1916, and* taken to
Zeebrugge, was tried by German court-
martial at Bruges, Thursday, July 27,
condemned to death by shooting, and
executed that afternoon. The charge
against him was that of attempting to
ram the German submarine U-33. At
Zeebrugge, when the
prisoners were
searched, a watch
was found on the
person of Captain
Fryatt, which had
been presented to
him by the Mayor of
Harwich in a public
demons tration in
honor of this act.
The inscription on
the watch showed
that it was presented
to him on account of
his successful escape
with his steamer from
a submarine which
he attempted to ram
when called upon to
surrender. The Ger-
man authorities, hav-
ing established his

identity by this watch, imprisoned him at
Bruges, while the other prisoners were
sent to Ruhleben. His trial was brief
and ended in his summary execution as a
" franc-tireur."

The first news came through a Reuter
dispatch from Amsterdam July 28 in a
German communique, in which the shoot-
ing was justified in the following terms :
The accused was condemned to death be-
cause, although he was not a member of a
combatant force, he made an attempt on the
afternoon of March 20, 1915, to ram the Ger-
man submarine U-33 near the Maas light-
ship. The accused, as well as the first officer

ftBd the chief engineer of the steamer, re-
ceived at the time from the British Admiralty
a gold watch as a reward of his brave con-
duct on that occasion, and his action was
mentioned with praise in the House of
Commons.

On the occasion in question, disregarding
the U-boat's signal to stop and show his
national flag, he turned at a critical moment
at high speed on the submarine, which
escaped the steamer by a few meters only
by immediately diving. He confessed that
in so doing he had acted in accordance with
the instructions of the Admiralty.

One of the many ne-
farious franc - tireur
proceedings of the
British merchant ma-
rine -against our war
vessels has thus found
a belated but merited
expiation.

The news of the
execution created in-
tense indignation in
England, and was
sternly denounced in
neutral countries. It
appears that the
British Foreign Of-
fice had apprehen-
sions of the fate of
Captain Fryatt when
he was first arrested.
On June 28 Sir Ed-
ward Grey asked the
United States Am-
bassador at Berlin to
ascertain the names of the prisoners on
the captured Brussels. Mr. Gerard re-
plied on July 1 that the officers and
crew were safe at Ruhleben. On July 18
Sir Edward Grey telegraphed the United
States Ambassador as follows:

* * * His Majesty's Government are now
in receipt of information to the effect that
it is stated in the Telegraaf on the 16th
instant that Captain Fryatt of that vessel
is to be tried by court-martial at Ghent on
the charge of ramming a German submarine,
and Sir E. Grey will be greatly obliged if
the United States Ambassador at Berlin can
be requested by telegraph 'to be good enough
to inquire whether this report is correct.

1018 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Sir E. Grey will be grateful if Mr. Gerard's
reply can also be communicated by telegraph.
On July 20 Sir Edward again tele-
graphed Ambassador Gerard:

Sir E. Grey would be greatly obliged if the
United States Ambassador at Berlin could
be requested by telegraph to take all possible
steps to secure the proper defense of Captain
Fryatt in the event of the court-martial being
held, and if his Excellency could be informed
confidentially that his Majesty's Govern-
ment are satisfied that, in committing the
act impugned, Captain Fryatt acted legiti-
mately in self-defense for the purpose of
evading capture or destruction.

On July 25 the following was sent,
marked " immediate ":

Sir E. Grey would be greatly obliged if the
United States Ambassador at Berlin could be
informed that, should the allegations on which
the charge against Captain Fryatt is under-
stood to be based be established by evidence,
his Majesty's Government are of opinion that
his action was perfectly legitimate.

His Majesty's Government consider that the
act of a merchant ship in steering for an
enemy submarine and forcing her to dive is
essentially defensive and precisely on the
same footing as the use by a defensively
armed vessel of her defensive armament in
order to resist capture, which both the United
States Government and his Majesty's Gov-
ernment hold to be the exercise of an un-
doubted right.

The next day the British Foreign Of-
fice addressed the American Ambassador
at London, prefacing its remarks with a
copy of the German communi.que of July
28, and adding:

His Majesty's Government find it difficult
to believe that a master of a merchant vessel
who, after German submarines adopted the
practice of sinking merchant vessels without
warning and without regard for the lives of
passengers or crew, took a step which ap-
peared to afford the only chance of saving
not only his vessel, but the lives of all on
board, can have been deliberately shot in cold
blood for this action.

If the German Government have in fact
perpetrated such a crime in the case of a
British subject held prisoner by them, it is
evident that a most serious condition of af-
fairs has arisen.

The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
is therefore obliged, on behalf of his Ma-
jesty's Government, to request that urgent
inquiry be made by the United States Em-
bassy at Berlin whether the report in the
press of the shooting of Captain Fryatt is
true, in order that his Majesty's Government
may have without delay a full and undoubted
account of the facts before them.

Mr. Page replied by sending to Sir Ed-

ward Grey the following paragraph of a
telegram which he had received from Mr.
Gerard:

Berlin, July 27, (5 P. M.)
Referring to your telegrams Nos. 821 and
824, I brought the case of Fryatt, Captain of
the steamship Brussels, to the attention of
the Imperial Foreign Office in writing on the
20th and 22d, and requested an opportunity to
engage counsel. A verbal reply was made
yesterday, stating that the trial was fixed for
today at Bruges. It was added that the
Foreign Office had requested a postponement
if possible.

I have today received a written reply stat-
ing that it is impossible to grant a postpone-
ment, inasmuch as German submarine wit-
nesses could not be further detained.

Major Neumann has been appointed by the
German authorities to defend Fryatt. He is
in civil life an attorney and justizrat.

On July 31 Mr. Asquith, the Premier,
made the following statement in the
House of Commons:

I deeply regret to say that it appears to be
true that Captain Fryatt has been murdered
by the Germans. His Majesty's Government
have heard with the utmost indignation of
this atrocious crime against the law of na-
tions and the usages of war. Coming as it
does contemporaneously with the lawless
cruelties to the population of Lille and other
occupied districts of France, it shows that
the German high command have under the
stress of military defeat renewed their policy
of terrorism. It is impossible to guess to
what further atrocities they may proceed.
His Majesty's Government, therefore, desire
to repeat emphatically that they are resolved
that such crimes shall not, if they can help it,
go unpunished. When the time arrives they
are determined to bring to justice the crim-
inals, whoever they may be, and whatever
their station. In such cases as this the man
who authorizes the system under which such
crimes are committed may well be the most
guilty of all. The question of what immediate
action should be taken is engaging the earnest
consideration of the Government.

Again on Aug. 15, replying to a ques-
tion, the Premier said:

This country will not tolerate a resumption
of diplomatic relations with Germany after
the war until reparation is made for the mur-
der of Captain Fryatt. Some of our allies
have suffered by brutalities even more gross
and on a more extended scale than ourselves
by .action of the German authorities. We are
in consultation with them as to the best,
most effective steps to be taken, and as to
what conditions should be expected in the
terms of peace to secure reparation that will
satisfy justice.

A member asked if the Government
was " prepared to make a statement that

THE FRY ATT CASE

1019

Emperor William is wanted for willful
murder in this case." No answer was re-
turned to this.

The shooting of Captain Fryatt has
kindled a flame of hatred toward Ger-
many no less violent than that which
followed the execution of Miss Cavell.
The act is denounced as judicial murder
by all the allied naval and military ex-
perts, as well as by the best-informed
naval critics in Holland and other neutral
countries. On Aug. 10 the German Gov-
ernment issued the following statement
in reply to the utterances of English of-
ficials on the subject:

It is only too intelligible that the English
Government attempts to justify Captain
Fryatt's action, for it is itself in a high de-
gree a fellow-culprit. Captain Fryatt, acting
as he did, acted only on the advice of his
Government.

The British Government's statement inten-
tionally misleads the public. Captain Fryatt
did not attempt to forestall an under-water
attack, without warning, by the submarine.
The U-boat was above water, and signaled
to him when above water to stop, according
to the international code of naval warfare.
Therefore, he did not merely attempt to save
the lives of his crew, -because they were not
endangered. Moreover, on March 28, 1915,
Captain Fryatt allowed the submarine, which
was approaching his ship for the purposes
of examination, to draw up close, so as to
ram her suddenly and unexpectedly, his ob-
ject being to destroy her, and so gain the
reward offered by the British Government.
This act was not an act of self-defense, but
a cunning attack by hired assassins. Cap-
tain Fryatt boasted of his action, though
happily he failed to attain his object. This
was brought home to him during the trial
by witnesses from the ci'ew of the subma-
rine in question, whose evidence was against
him. The British Parliament believed he
had succeeded and praised his conduct, and
the British Government rewarded him.

The German War Tribunal sentenced him
to death because he had performed an act of
war against the German sea forces, although
he did not belong to the armed forces of his
country. He was not deliberately shot in cold
blood without due consideration, as the Brit-
ish Government asserts, but he was shot as a
franc-tireur, after calm consideration and
thorough investigation. As martial law on
land protects the- soldiery against assassina-
tion, by threatening the offender with the
penalty of death, so it protects the members
of the sea forces against assassination at
sea. Germany will continue to use this law
of warfare in order to save her submarine
crews from becoming the victims of francs-
tireurs at sea.

Naval experts in the United States
hold that Captain Fryatt was entitled to
be regarded as a prisoner of war and
that decisions in American courts upheld
his act as an act of a belligerent.

The German Admiralty admit in their
Appendix to the Naval Prize Regulations,
June 22, 1914, and published Aug. 3, 1914,
that the crew of an armed enemy mer-
chant vessel are to be treated as prison-
ers of war if they resist capture. Thus, if
Captain Fryatt's vessel had been armed,
had resisted capture, and had later been
captured, he would have been treated as
a prisoner of war.

But the nature of arms is not desig-
nated and Dr. Hans Wehberg, a German
international lawyer, does not specify
what shall constitute defense, the legality
of which he admits, (Das Seekriegsrecht,
1915):

The resistance of enemy merchant ships to
capture would be then only not permissible
if a rule against this had found common
recognition. But in truth no single example
can be produced from international prece-
dents in which the States have held resistance
as not permissible. Much rather in the cele-
brated decision of Lord Stowell in the case
of the Catharina Elizabeth resistance was
declared permissible, and Article 10 of the
American Naval War Code takes up the
same standpoint. Also by far the greater
number of authors and the Institute of Inter-
national Law share this view.

(Article 12, Paragraph 3 of the Oxford
Rules says that it is permissible to public and
also private enemy ships to defend them-
selves against the attack of an enemy ship.)

Also de lege ferenda the prevailing view
is to defend. Should great merchant ships
worth a million allow themselves to be taken
by smaller ships only because the latter com-
ply with the requirements of a so-called war-
ship?

(This consideration also led the Committee
of the Institute of International Law to
recommend to that body that resistance
should be declared permissible. Of the re-
marks of Rolin-Jaequemyns, Annuaire de
I'Institut, XXVI., Page 518 et seq., Page
284.)

The enemy merchant ship has then the right
of defense against an enemy attack, and this
right he can exercise against visit, for this is
indeed the first act of capture. The attacked
merchant ship can indeed itself seize the over-
powered warship as a prize.

(See also Fiore, Annuaire de I'Institut,
XXVI., Page 517, and the prevailing opinion
hereon. See Triepel, Zeitschr.f. Volkerrecht
a.a.O., Page 285.)

Thus, in the light of German law and

1020 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

German legal interpretation thereof,
Captain Fryatt was acting well within
his rights in attempting to ram a hostile
submarine. Had he been armed he
might have been successful. Even then
he would have been a prisoner of war,
for the Germans would have been

estopped, under their own regulations,
from treating him otherwise. As it was,
he used the only arm available — his ship.
And because he used his ship and not
a gun he was tried, convicted, and ex-
ecuted by a court of German naval of-
ficers as a " f ranc-tireur of the sea."

Our Relations with Mexico

LITTLE actual progress toward a
settlement of the Mexican ques-
tion has been made during the
month, but the two Governments
have exchanged friendly notes and come
to a full agreement as to the next step
to be taken. The various points at issue,
notably Mexico's demand for the with-
drawal of our troops and our demand that
the border be safeguarded against mur-
derous raids of Mexican outlaws, are to
be submitted to a joint commission, con-
sisting of three members from each
nation. This plan was definitely proposed
by General Carranza in his note of July
11, (presented by Senor Arredondo on
July 12,) and was accepted by President
Wilson with the suggestion that the
powers of the commission be somewhat
enlarged. This was answered promptly
by General Carranza's appointment of
Mexico's three Commissioners:

Luis Cabrera, Minister of Finance in the
Carranza Cabinet and former Confidential
Agent in Washington for the Carranza Gov-
ernment.

Alberto J. Pani, President of the Mexican
National Railways.

Ignacio Bonillas, Sub-Secretary of the De-
partment of Communications.

Some unavoidable delay has occurred
in appointing the American members.
Meanwhile General Pershing's force re-
mains in Mexico, and the National Guard
contingents from all the States continue
in their encampments all along our side
of the border, where they are receiving
nilitary drill under regular army officers
and becoming the nucleus of a well-pre-
pared army of defense for future emer-
gencies. The border raids have ceased,
at least for the present.

The diplomatic correspondence on the

subject begins with the Mexican note of
July 11, which harks back to the Amer-
ican note published in the August num-
ber of CURRENT HISTORY. It is addressed
to Mr. Lansing and reads as follows:
Mexico City, July 11, 1916.

Mr. Secretary : I have had the honor to
refer the note of your Excellency, dated the
7th inst., which was transmitted to our Con-
fidential Agent, Eliseo Arredondo, and upon
doing so I wish to mention that I have re-
ceived instructions from the First Chief in
charge of the executive power of the Union,
suggesting that you convey to his Excellency,
President Wilson, the idea of naming three
Commissioners to represent each of our Gov-
ernments to meet in some place of mutual
designation, hold conferences and resolve at
once the point regarding the definite with-
drawal of the American forces now in Mexico,
draft a protocol of agreement regarding the
reciprocal crossing of forces and investigate
the origin of the incursions taking place up
to date, so as to be able to ascertain responsi-
bility and arrange definitely the pending
difficulties or those that may arise between
the two countries in the future, all this to
be subject to the approval of both Govern-
ments.

The purpose of the Mexican Government
is that such conferences shall be held in a
spirit of the most frank cordiality and with
an ardent desire to reach a satisfactory
agreement and one honorable to both coun-
tries, with the understanding that if the
United States Government accepts the idea
hereby suggested this shall be the recom-
mendation made to the Commissioners desig-
nated. The Mexican Government considers
this the most efficacious medium of reaching
a satisfactory solution and hopes the United
States will state whether the suggestion is
acceptable, in order that it may be immedi-
ately put in practice and that the Mexican
Government may send the names of its dele-
gates. Assure his Excellency of my highest
consideration. C. AGUILAR.

A cordial assent to the proposition was
granted in the American reply, which
was handed to Senor Arredondo, the Am-

OUR RELATIONS WITH MEXICO

1021

bassador Designate of Mexico at Wash-
ington :

Washington, July 28, 1916.

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to ac-
knowledge receipt of your Excellency's not*
transmitted under date of July 12 by Lie.
Eliseo Arredondo, your Government's Confi-
dential Agent in Washington, informing me
that your Excellency has received instruc-
tions from the Citizen First Chief of the Con-
stitutionalist Army charged with the execu-
tive power of the Union to propose that each
of our Governments name three commission-
ers, who shall hold conferences at some place
to be mutually agreed upon arid decide forth-
with the question relating to the evacuation
of the American forces now in Mexico, and
to draw up and conclude a protocol or agree-
ment regarding the reciprocal crossing of the
frontier by the forces of both countries, also
to determine the origin of the incursion to
date, in order to fix the responsibility there-
for and definitely to settle the difficulties
now pending or those which may arise be-
tween the two countries on account of the
same or a similar reason ; all of which shall
be subject to the approval of both Govern-
ments.

In reply I have the honor to state that I
have laid your Excellency's note before the
President and have received his instructions
to inform your Excellency that the Govern-
ment of the United States is disposed to ac-
cept the proposal of the Mexican Government
in the same spirit of frank cordiality in which
it is made. This Government believes, and
suggests, however, that the powers of the
proposed commission should be enlarged so
that, if happily a solution satisfactory to both
Governments of the question set forth in your
Excellency's communication may be reached,
the commission may also consider such other
matters the friendly arrangement of which
would tend to improve the relations of the
two countries ; it being understood that such
recommendations as the commission may
make shall not be binding upon the respective
Governments until formally accepted by
them.

Should this proposal be accepted by your
Excellency's Government, I have the honor to
state that this Government will proceed im-
mediately to appoint its commissioners, and
fix, after consultation with your Excellency's
Government, the time and place and other
details of the proposed conferences.

Accept, Mr. Secretary, the assurances of my
highest consideration.

PRANK L. POLK,
Acting Secretary of State.

The response to this was handed to
Mr. Polk by Senor Arredondo a week
later, the text being as follows :

Mexico City, Aug. 4, 1916.

Mr. Secretary: In due reply to the cour-
teous note of the Department of State, dated
July 28, 1916, I have the honor to say to
your Excellency that the First Chief of the
Constitutionalist Army, in charge of the ex-
ecutive power of the Mexican Republic, con-
gratulates himself upon the laudable efforts
of the American Government to arrive at a
solution of existing difficulties between the
two countries, and, to that effect, consider-
ing it of the greatest importance that a prompt
decision be reached of the points which have
caused the existing differences between the
United States and Mexico, referred to in the
note of the Mexican Government dated July
4 last, has seen fit to appoint at once a com-
mission of three persons, constituted by
Licentiate Luis Cabrera, Engineer Ignacio
Bonillas, and Engineer Alberto J. Pani, to
whom instructions have, been given to devote
their attention preferably to the resolution
of the points mentioned in the previous note
of this department.

Licentiate Eliseo Arredondo has been au-
thorized to treat with the Department of
State the matter of details relating to the
place and date on which the Commissioners
of the Mexican Government should meet the
Commissioners of the United States in order
to commence their labors.

I reiterate to your Excellency the assurance
of my highest consideration.

C. AGUILAR.
Secretary of Foreign Relations.

At the present writing (Aug. 21) the
American members of the commission
have not yet been appointed, owing to
the inability of two of those chosen by
President Wilson to serve. The delay
has nettled General Carranza, necessitat-
ing an informal explanation.

An official decree issued on Aug. 17 by
the Mexican Government threatens to
add another point of difference between
the two countries. It provides that
henceforth all foreigners who intend to
acquire lands, mines, water rights, oil
wells, timber lands, or fisheries must
make formal declaration that they re-
nounce their treaty rights and will claim
only the same privileges as Mexican
citizens. In other words, they must re-
nounce the right to demand protection of
their Governments. Authorities on inter-
national law regard it as very unlikely
that any Government will recognize such
a decree.

The Irish Situation

Collapse of the Home Rule Plan — Execution of Sir Roger

Casement.

HENRY EDWARD DUKE, a bar-
rister and Unionist member of
Parliament for Exeter, was ap-
pointed the new Chief Secretary
for Ireland on July 31, in succession to
Augustine Birrell. Lord Wimborne, who
resigned as Lord Lieutenant after the
Dublin outbreak, but whose resignation
had not been accepted, withdrew it a few
days later, and thus the Dublin Castle
rule for Ireland, which was to have been
abolished by the substitution of an Irish
Parliament with the six Ulster counties
excluded, was formally set up again.

This announcement was the signal for
a fresh outburst of bitter protest from
John Redmond, the Nationalist leader,
and other Nationalist members. A
declaration issued by the Nationalist
Party in Parliament declared that its
members considered themselves absolved
from association with the Coalition Gov-
ernment, and free to oppose it inde-
pendently in any circumstances.

The debates in the House of Commons
on the Irish question were marked by
intense bitterness. The Government was
freely charged with breach of faith in
failing to present the Home Rule bill,
and in setting up again the control of
Irish affairs at Dublin Castle by a Union-
ist Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary.

LLOYD GEORGE'S PLAN FAILS

In the House on July 24, Mr. Lloyd
George made a frank confession of his
failure to reach a settlement. His words,
which follow, are in answer to a bitter
speech of criticism by John Redmond:

There was a clear understanding between
the parties that the Ulster counties should
not be automatically included, and that that
should be made absolutely clear on the face
of the bill (the proposed Home Rule bill.)
That is all the Government asked for, and
that is the only thing they say at the pres-
ent moment. The second point is the altera-
tion in the form of the agreement with re-
gard to the number of Irish members. Here
I say at once the heads of the settlement have
been departed from. The Irish members were

to remain in undiminished numbers in this
House until a permanent settlement had been
carried through and embodied in an Act of
Parliament. Mr. Redmond asked me: Why
have we departed from that? I will state
quite frankly why. It is perfectly true that the
suggested alteration was placed before Mr.
Redmond after the statement of the Prime
Minister. The position was this : The whole
of my honorable friends who represent the
Unionist Party found it to be quite impossible
for them to vote for a proposal which would
maintain the Irish members in undiminished
numbers in the Imperial Parliament after a
general election and after a Home Rule Gov-
ernment had been set up in Ireland. They
informed us that if they supported the pro-
posal there would not be a single supporter
of it in their own party, and that even mem-
bers of the Unionist Party whe were prepared
to agree to bringing Home Rule into opera-
tion immediately would object to that par-
ticular proposal.

What, therefore, was the alternative r>ro-
posal? The proposal was that until the dis-
solution the Irish members should remain in
the Imperial Parliament in undiminished
numbers; that, after the dissolution the pro-
visions of the Home Rule act should come
into operation, but that the Irish members
should be summoned to the Imperial Parlia-
ment in undiminished numbers whenever the
Imperial Parliament came to consider a per-
manent settlement.

The objection raised by the Unionist mem-
bers to the proposal was this : They said
Home Rule for three-fourths of Ireland
would have come into operation, and that
after dissolution, if the Irish members were
here in undiminished numbers, it might make
the difference between, say, a Liberal and
a Unionist Government.

They considered that to be perfectly unfair
from the point of view of the ideas which
they represent, and they stated quite distinct-
ly that it would be impossible for them to
assent to it. Therefore, we were face to face
with the fact that the agreement could not
be put through without that modification.

The Government are in a position to intro-
duce a measure for bringing the Home Rule
act into immediate operation for all the
counties of Ireland except six. The powers
of the Home Rule act in respect of that part
of Ireland will be absolutely unimpaired ex-
cept in regard to the Court of Appeal. Mr.
Redmond says if there is any attempt to force
the bill with these modifications upon Irish
members they will resist it— that they will
not merely resist these provisions, but they

Flhi.D MAKSHA1 PA I 1. \ ON HlMM-.N'lU

German General Recently Placed in Supreme Command of all Forces
of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front.

ADMIRAL REINHARD SCHEER

German Vice Admiral Who Commanded the Kaiser's Fleets in the Battle
of the Skagerrak, and Who Was Made a Full Admiral Immediately

Afterward.
(Photo from Central News Service.)

THE IRISH SITUATION

1023

will resist the whole bill. If that is the view
of Irish members it would be idle for the
Government to bring in a bill for bringing
Home Rule into immediate operation under
any conditions. I deeply regret it. I think
it is a disaster. Honorable members know
their difficulties, which are undoubtedly very
great. But at the same time I wish that
they could have seen their way. Let them
believe that it would be imposible for us to
attempt to bring the Home Rule act into
operation during the war except under those
conditions.

I consulted the Prime Minister in respect
of every turn and every move of the nego-
tiations. I can say on my conscience that we
have done our best. We have failed. I re-
gret it in my heart. I have been for twenty-
six years a member of this House and I was
elected on Home Rule. The contest was
fought on Home Rule in a constituency which
cared perhaps far more for Disestablishment
than anything else. I have had differences
of opinion with my honorable friends from
Ireland on many points, but on one point I
have never had any difference, I have voted
consistently for every proposal- to give self-
government to Ireland. I still believe at this
moment that you cannot govern a high-
spirited and courageous race — and not even
the bitterest opponents of Home Rule will
deny those qualities to the Irish people—
against their will. You cannot govern them
except with their consent. I regret from the
bottom of my heart these misunderstandings,
failures to get consent. * * * But the
Government ought not to, and will not, force
this proposal upon them.

TWO STUMBLING BLOCKS
On July 28 Mr. Lloyd George gave the
following statement to The Associated
Press:

There were two points on which there was
disagreement at the end of the negotiations.
One dealt with the means by which the ex-
clusion of the six Ulster counties was to
continue or to be brought to an end. This,
to my view, although I believe Mr. Redmond
differs on that point, was less a matter of
substance than of words. The Nationalists
agreed it was impossible that the Ulster coun-
ties should be coerced into an Irish Parlia-
ment. It was understood that when they
were willing to come in no one would seek
to keep them out. Their exclusion for the
present would not have affected in the
slightest degree the full powers given to the
Nationalist part of Ireland under the Home
Rule act. The question of their coming in
voluntarily afterward could have been decided
when it had been seen how home rule was
working out.

The second point was " connected with
Irish representation at Westminster. It is
not unnatural that the Unionists contended
that Ireland is proportionately over-repre-
sented in the House of Commons, and that

it would not have been fair, either to the
portion of Ireland remaining outside of the
home rule scheme or to the other parts of
the British Isles, to have retained such a
full representation of Irish constituencies In
the Commons after the larger part of Ire-
land had a Parliament of its own to settle
its domestic affairs. However, the scheme
of settlement proposed stated in so many
words that when Irish affairs were to be dis-
cussed in the London Parliament the full ,
Irish representation should be called to par-
ticipate as before the existence of the Irish
Parliament.

Although the re-establishment of exec-
utive rule in Ireland at Dublin Castle in-
dicates that home rule has been aban-
doned, the idea persists that the Na-
tionalists may yet be brought about to
accept the Lloyd George proposals and
a truce proclaimed until the Imperial Con-
ference of all the self-governing do-
minions after the war can permanently
settle the Irish question.

THE SINN FEIN REBELLION
The report of the Royal Commission
appointed to inquire into the causes of
the Irish revolt was made public July 4,
1916. The following were the conclu-
sions :

It is outside the scope of your Majesty's in-
structions to us to inquire how far the policy
of the Irish executive was adopted by the
Cabinet as a whole, or to attach responsibil-
ity to any but the civil and military execu-
tive in Ireland; but the general conclusion
that we draw from the evidence before us
is that the main cause of the rebellion ap-
pears to be that lawlessness was allowed to
grow up unchecked, and that Ireland for
several years past has been administered on
the principle that it was safer and more
expedient to leave law in abeyance if collision
with any faction of the Irish people could
thereby be avoided.

Such a policy is the negation of that car-
dinal rule of Government which demands that
the enforcement of law and the preservation
of order should always be independent of
political expediency.

IMPORTATION OP ARMS

We consider that the importation of large
quantities of arms into Ireland after the lapse
of the Arms act, and the toleration of drilling
by large bodies of men, first in Ulster and
then in other districts of Ireland, created
conditions which rendered possible the recent
troubles in Dublin and elsewhere.

It appears to us that reluctance was shown
by the Irish Government to repress by pros-
ecution written and spoken seditious utter-
ances, and to suppress the drilling and ma-
noeuvring of armed forces known to be under
the control of men who were openly declaring

1024 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

their hostility to your Majesty's Government
and their readiness to welcome and assist
your Majesty's enemies.

This reluctance was largely prompted by
the pressure brought to bear by the Parlia-
mentary representatives of the Irish people,
and in Ireland itself there developed a wide-
spread belief that no repressive measures
would be undertaken by the Government
against sedition. This led to a rapid increase
of preparations for insurrection and was the
immediate cause of the recent outbreak.

We are of opinion that from the commence-
ment of the present war all seditious utter-
ances and publications should have been
firmly suppressed at the outset, and if juries
or magistrates were found unwilling to en-
force this policy further powers should have
been invoked under the existing acts for the
defense of the realm.

We are also of opinion that on the outbreak
of war all drilling and manoeuvring by un-
recognized bodies of men, whether armed or
imarmed, should have been strictly prohib-
ited, and. that as soon as it became known to
the Irish Government that the Irish Volun-
teers and the Citizen Army were under the
control of men prepared to assist your Ma-
jesty's enemies if the opportunity should be
offered to them, all drilling and open carry-
ing of arms by these bodies of men should
have been forcibly suppressed.

It does not appear to be disputed that the
authorities in the Spring of 1916, while be-
lieving that the seditious bodies would not
venture unaided to break into insurrection,
were convinced that they were prepared to
assist a German landing.

We are further of opinion that at the risk
of a collision early steps should have been
taken to arrest and prosecute leaders and or-
ganizers of sedition.

MR. BIRRELL'S RESPONSIBILITY

For the reasons before given, we do not
think that any responsibility rests upon the
Lord Lieutenant. He was appointed in Feb-
ruary, 1915, and was in no way answerable
for the policy of the Government.

We are, however, of the opinion that the
Chief Secretary as the administrative head
of your Majesty's Government in Ireland is
primarily responsible for the situation that
was allowed to arise and the outbreak that
occurred.

Sir Matthew Nathan assumed office as
Under Secretary to the Irish Government
in September, 1914, only. In our view he
carried out with the utmost loyalty the
policy of the Government, and of his im-
mediate superior the Chief Secretary, but
we consider that he did not sufficiently im-
press upon the Chief Secretary during the
latter's prolonged absences from Dublin the
necessity for more active measures to remedy
the situation in Ireland, which on Dec. 18
last in a letter to the Chief Secretary he
described as " most serious and menacing."

.We are satisfied that Sir Neville Cham-

berlain, the Inspector General of the Royal
Irish Constabulary, and Colonel Edgeworth-
Johnstone, the Chief Commissioner of the
Dublin Metropolitan Police, required their
subordinates to furnish, and did receive from
their subordinates, full and exact reports as
to the nature, progress, and aims of the-
various armed associations in Ireland. From
these sources the Government had abundant
material on which they could have acted
many months before the leaders themselves
contemplated any actual rising.

For the conduct, zeal, and loyalty of the
Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin
Metropolitan Police we have nothing but
praise.

We do not attach any responsibility to the
military authorities in Ireland for the rebel-
lion or its results. As long as Ireland was
under civil government those authorities had
nothing to do with the suppression of sedi-
tion. Their duties were confined to securing
efficiency in their own ranks and to the
promotion of recruiting, and they could only
aid in the suppression of disorder when duly
called on by the civil power. By the middle
of 1915 it was obvious to the military author-
ities that their efforts in favor of recruit-
ing were being frustrated by the hostile
activities of the Sinn Fein supporters, and
they made representations to the Govern-
ment to that effect. The general danger
of the situation was clearly pointed out to
the Irish Government by the military author-
ities, on their own initiative, in February
last, but the warning fell on unheeding ears.

GENERAL MAXWELL'S REPORT
General Sir John Maxwell, who was
in charge of the military operations in
Ireland, submitted his report May 25; it
was made public in July. The summary
of his report follows:

(1) The rebellion began by Sinn Feiners,
presumably acting under orders, shooting in
cold blood certain soldiers and policemen.
Simultaneously they took possession of va-
rious important buildings and occupied houses
along the routes in the City of Dublin which '
were likely to, be used by troops taking up
posts.

(2) Most of the rebels were not in any uni-
form, and by mixing with peaceful citizens
made it almost impossible for the troops to
distinguish between friend and foe until fire
was opened.

(3) In many cases troops having passed
along a street seemingly occupied by harm-
less people were suddenly fired upon from
behind from windows and roof tops. Such
were the conditions when reinforcements
commenced to arrive in Dublin.

SNIPING WAS CONTINUOUS

(4) Whilst fighting continued under con-
ditions at once so confused and so trying,
it is possible that some innocent citizens were
shot. It must be remembered that the

THE IRISH SITUATION

1025

struggle was in many cases of a house-to-
house character, that sniping was continuous
and very persistent, and that it was often
extremely difficult to distinguish between
those who were or had been firing upon the
troops and those who had for various reasons
chosen to remain on the scene of the fighting,
instead of leaving the houses and passing
through the cordons.

(5) The number of such incidents that has
been brought to notice is very insignificant.

(6) Once the rebellion started the members
of the Dublin Metropolitan Police— an un-
armed uniformed force— had to be withdrawn,
or they would have been mercilessly shot
down, as, indeed, were all who had the bad
luck to meet the rebels. In their absence
a number of the worst elements of the city
joined the rebels and were armed by them.
The daily record of the Dublin Magistrates'
Court proves that such looting as there was
was done by such elements.

(7) There have been numerous incidents of
deliberate shooting on ambulances and those
courageous people who voluntarily came out
to tend to the wounded. The City Fire
Brigade, when turned out in consequence of
incendiary fires, were fired on and had to
retire.

(8) As soon as it was ascertained that the
rebels had established themselves in various
centres, the first phase ®f operations was
conducted with a view to isolate them by
forming a cordon of troops round each.

(9) To carry out this streets were selected,
along which the cordon could be drawn.
Some of these streets, for instance, North
King Street, were found to be strongly held,
rebels occupying the roofs of houses, upper
windows, and strongly constructed barri-
cades.

(10) Artillery fire was only used to reduce
the barricades, or against a particular house
known to be strongly held.

(11) The troops- suffered severe losses in
establishing these cordons, and, once estab-
lished, the troops were subjected to a con-
tinuous fire from all directions, especially
at night time, and invariably from persons
concealed in houses.

LOSSES AMONG THE TROOPS.

(12) To give an idea of the opposition
offered to his Majesty's troops in the execu-
tion of their duty, the following losses oc-
curred :

Killed. Wounded.

Officers 17 46

Other ranks 89 288

(13) I wish to draw attention to the fact
that, when it became known that the leaders
ef the rebellion wished to surrender, the
officers used every endeavor to prevent fur-
ther bloodshed ; emissaries were sent in to
the various isolated bands, and time was
given them to consider their position.

(14) I cannot imagine a more difficult
situation than that in which the troops were
placed ; most of those employed were draft-

finding battalions, or young Territorials
from England, who had no knowledge of
Dublin.

(15) The surrenders, which began on April
30, were continued until late on May 1, dur-
ing which time there was a considerable
amount of isolated sniping.

(16) Under the circumstances related above
I consider the troops as a whole behaved with
the greatest restraint, and carried out their
disagreeable and distasteful duties in a man-
ner which reflects the greatest credit on their
discipline.

(17) Allegations on the behavior of the
troops brought to my notice are being most
carefully inquired into. I am glad to say
they are few in number, and these are not all
borne out by direct evidence.

(18) Numerous cases - of unarmed persona
killed by rebels during the outbreak have
been reported to me. As instances, I may se-
lect the following for your information :

J. Brien, a constable of the Dublin Met-
ropolitan Police^ was shot while on duty at
Castle Gate on April 24. On the same day
another constable of the same force named
M. Lahiff was shot while on duty at St.
Stephen's Green. On April 25 R. Waters
of Recess, Monkstown, County Dublin,
was shot at Mount Street Bridge while
"being driven into Dublin by Captain
Scovell, R. A. M. C.
All these were unarmed, as was Captain

ScoveU. In the last case the car was not

challenged or asked to stop.

(19) I wish to emphasize that the responsi-
bility for the loss of life, however it occurred,
the destruction of property and other losses,
rests entirely with those who engineered this
revolt, and who, at a time when the empire
is engaged in a gigantic struggle, invited the
assistance and co-operation of the Germans.

CASEMENT'S TRAGIC END
The melancholy tragedy of Sir Roger
Casement, one of the moving spirits in
the Irish rerolt, ended with his death on
the gallows for high treason. He was
hanged at Pentonville Prison at 9 o'clock
Thursday morning, Aug. 3. He was ex-
ecuted in his own clothes, but was not
permitted to wear a collar. A Roman
Catholic priest ministered to him during
his last moments, and led the procession
to the scaffold. Casement had been
brought up in the Protestant faith, but
became a convert to Roman Catholicism
after his trial and took his first com-
munion the morning of his death.

Two hours before the execution a crowd
of men and women gathered before the
prison gates, and when the prison bell
announced that the trap had been sprung
there was a mocking, jeering yell from

1026 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the crowd; but, elsewhere, behind the
prison, thirty Irish men and* women were
assembled, and when the clang of the
bell announced that the doomed man had
paid the penalty, they fell on their knees
and remained thus for some minutes in
silent prayer.

Earnest efforts were made to secure
a commutation of Sir Roger Casement's
sentence. The Senate of the United
States passed a resolution asking that
clemency be exercised. Pope Benedict
also interceded in his behalf, and an im-
pressive petition to this effect was pre-
sented, signed by the most distinguished
Catholic and Protestant clergymen and
laymen of the United Kingdom.

The British Government, through
Lord Robert Cecil, issued the following
formal statement regarding the execu-
tion:

No doubt of Casement's guilt exists. No
one doubts that the court and jury arrived
at the right verdict. The only ground for a
reprieve would be political expediency, a dif-
ficult ground to put forward in this country.
This country never could strain the law to
punish a man for the same reason that it
could not strain the law to let one off.

The Irish rebellion began with the murder
of unarmed people, both soldiers and police.
No grievance justified it, and it was purely
a political movement organized by a small
section of Irish people who still hate Eng-

land and were assisted by Germany. There
was and is in this country the greatest pos-
sible indignation against these people. There
is no doubt that Casement did everything
possible to assist this rebellion in co-opera-
tion with the Germans. There can be no
doubt that he was moved by enmity for this
country. The contention that he landed in
Ireland for the purpose of preventing the
rebellion is demonstrably false. No such as-
sertion was made by counsel at the trial.

Casement was much more malignant and
hostile to this country than were the leaders
of the rising, who were caught with arms
in their hands. He visited military prisons
in Germany with the intention of persuading
Irish soldiers to throw off their allegiance.
All sorts of promises were made for the im-
provement of the conditions of these men to
induce them to join the Irish legion. An
enormous majority thus approached refused
and thereafter were subjected to increased
hardships by the Germans. From among
these Irish soldiers a number have since
been repatriated as hopeless invalids, and
they subsequently died. They looked upon
Casement as their murderer.

Nor is there any ground, public or private,
so far as we know, which can be quoted in
mitigation of Casement's crime, and I do
not think any Government doing its duty
could interfere with the sentence which has
been passed on him.

Irishmen throughout the world ex-
pressed deep indignation in that the
sentence was not commuted. The Amer-
ican press generally advocated that
course very strongly.

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

What Is Militarism?

By the Editor of The London Times' Literary Supplement

WE have all been talking for a
long time about militarism, es-
pecially Prussian militarism ;
but it is not even now too late
to ask what we mean by it, because many
people seem to think that it cannot be
separated from its epithet Prussian; in
fact, that it is bad because it is Prussian,
and because the Prussians are bad. But
the Prussians have just as much right
to be militarist as any other nation. We
must not be misled by their conviction
that they are necessarily saved into a
belief that they are necessarily damned.
There was a time when Frederick the
Great was to the English people the
Protestant Hero. They admired in him
just what we condemn now in the mod-
ern Prussian ; but they called it by a dif-
ferent name. So there are people in Eng-
land now who really do admire the Prus-
sian state of mind; at least, they would
admire it if it were English. It seems
to them wrong in the Prussians only be-
cause they are Prussians, just as it
seems to the Prussians themselves right
because they are Prussians. Such people,
whether Prussians or English, are not
capable of thinking clearly about mili-
tarism at all.

The first thing to be said against
militarism is that it is a kind of national
hypochondria. Just as the hypochondriac
sees life in terms of death, sees it as a
perpetual effort to avoid death, so the-
militarist sees peace in terms of war,
sees it as a perpetual effort to avoid
defeat in war. Now the Prussian, we
must confess, has some excuse for his
hypochondria. He is like a man who has
actually suffered from a very serious
illness. It is a hundred years and more
ago that Prussia was conquered and dis-
membered and almost destroyed by Na-
poleon. But a shock of that kind stays
long in a national memory. Further, all
the romance of Prussian history has

gathered around the Prussian struggle for
freedom; at least, for what the Prussian
calls freedom. That struggle is the great
achievement of Prussia, the only one of
whioh she can be morally proud. The
rest of her history is, in the main, flat
burglary. Even then she was fighting
only for herself; but she did fight in
such a way that she seemed to the rest
of the world worth fighting for. Ua-
fortunately she was confirmed then in
a belief which she had held before, that
her sole national function was to fight
for herself, and even when she was not
fighting to conceive of peace in terms
of war.

Needless to say, there is some excuse
for her, apart from Jena and its conse-
quences. No one has ever liked Prussia;
she has always been geographically weak,
and therefore has always wished to make
herself geographically stronger at the
expense of some one else. She is like a
self-made man, and one who has made
himself by ruthless competition, at first
with other little tradesmen, and after-
ward as a huge joint stock company.
Such a man, especially if he has been
once bankrupt and several times very
near bankruptcy, sees all life as a strug-
gle for life; and that is how Prussia sees
it. That is why she is militarist; and she
can make out a case why she should be
militarist.

Even before the war, when she was at
the height of her strength, she was still
thinking of her weak frontier; she had
persuaded herself that she was afraid of
the Russian peril. History, according to
her notion of it, consisted of an incessant
and inevitable struggle between the
Teuton and the Slav; and the moment
had come when the Teuton must get his
blow in first if he was not to be over-
come later. The Prussian says that he
is fighting in self-defense; we say that
he is fighting to dominate Europe; but

1028 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the difference between us is not so great
as it seems; for, according to the Prus-
sian idea, he will never be safe until he
dominates Europe ; and he has a right to
dominate Europe because other nations
will not let him alone. If they would let
him alone he would be an innocent lamb.

This state of mind is not confined to
Prussia; and there is always some ex-
cuse for it, just as there is some ex-
cuse for the perpetual fears and precau-
tions of the hypochondriac. Men do fall
ill and die, and we must all die some day;
and nations do attack each other, they
do rise and fall ; and, so far as we know,
they are all subject sooner or later to an
inevitable process of decay. But the
Prussians have been more hypochon-
driacal — that is to say, more militarist —
than any other people. That which is in
other nations an occasional weakness is
with them an obsession, so that they
have become quite unable to distinguish
between real and imaginary dangers.
There is always a hypochondriacal fac-
tion in every country; but in Prussia that
faction is the nation; and, as to the pri-
vate hypochondriac the doctor is a priest,
so the officer is a priest to every
Prussian.

For the Frenchman or the Englishman
there are many and diverse romances in
life; and his country means to him many
different things. But for the Prussian
there is only one romance, a sick-room
romance of war and victory; and his
country means to him his army. That is
his one achievement, and whatever else
he does well is subordinate to it. The
Prussians, as nobody can deny, have a
great power of organization; but even
that is a part of their hypochondria. They
organize their country as a hypochon-
driac of strong will and methodical
habits organizes his life. He may learn
to play golf well or to walk far and fast ;
but he has learned it all to keep himself
in health; and so the Prussians have or-
ganized themselves better, perhaps, than*
any other people, but always with an
eye to war. And the aim of their or-
ganization is not freedom or a full, rich
life, but victory in that war which they
are always expecting. They protest, and
truly, that they have not in the last

century made war so often as some other
nations. So a hypochondriac might say
that he has not been ill so often as some
more healthy-minded persons.

But the Prussians more than other
nations have thought about war and have
organized themselves for war; they have
behaved always as if war could be the
only end of their relations with the rest
of the world; and they have at intervals
willed war and made it more ruthlessly
than any other people. Often they have
got their way without war, because other
nations knew how well they were pre-
pared for it and that they would make
it without scruple if they could not get
their way otherwise. So they might say
that their method has been justified, that
it has, in fact, insured peace, if it were
not that the effect of this method has
been cumulative.

The whole of Europe has known for
many years that the Prussians would
make war whenever they thought that
the moment for it had come. They were
always aware of the mailed fist even
when it was disguised in the velvet glove.
Elsewhere there were squabbles and
threats of war; but the bark of other
nations was worse than their bite. And
all the while Prussia was waiting to bite,
because she alone of all the nations had
no desire for a permanent peace, no be-
lief that it was possible. She infected
the rest of Germany with her hypochon-
dria, and she might infect the whole
world if she got any advantage in this
war. For the power of hypochondria lies
in the fact that there is always some
reason for it.

The Prussians can make out a case
for themselves and for every brutal act
they have committed in this war. There
is no way of proving that they are wrong
by absolute logic. It all depends whether
you hope or fear most from life. The
militarist fears most, and so any events
which make the nations fear make them
also militarist. And they are tempted to
militarism most of all by an event so
large and so disagreeable that it affects
their whole conception of the nature of
life, such as the Prussian victory in 1870.
Then it seemed that a nation which or-
ganized itself for war, and willed war at

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

1029

the moment best suited to its own pur-
poses, had the very gods on its side. Then
there was in England and all over the
world a real admiration of Prussia and a
belief, expressed by Carlyle, that the
Prussians were God's chosen people. Com-
pared with them other nations seemed to
lack purpose and faith. As for France,
she was frivolous and corrupt, and God
had given judgment against her at Sedan.

The whole world began to believe that
Prussia was illustrating the Darwinian
theory, that by her victories she was
proving herself to be the fittest of all
nations to survive, and that other na-
tions must imitate both her actions and
her way of thinking, if they were not
to be destroyed by the wrath of God, or
the cosmic process, or whatever name
was given to that power which was sup-
posed to support and even to sanctify
the Prussian method. In fact, the mind
of Europe was darkened by the Prussian
victory, and the hopes of Europe, even
when they still seemed to be hopes, had
become fears. It seemed to all the na-
tions that they had been living too easily,
that they had deluded themselves about
the nature of the universe. All those
things with which they had concerned
themselves, such as freedom, equality,
art, philosophy, were luxuries, and dan-
gerous luxuries, in the world as it was.
Their proper concern was their own ex-
istence, which was necessarily and right-
ly threatened by other nations and would
be destroyed by any other nation which,
like Prussia, had a superior sense of
reality.

Everywhere there spread a belief that
organization and efficiency were the
highest virtues in a nation; and this
meant always organization and efficiency
directed against other nations. It was
not that things were to be done well for
the sake of doing them well; but that
they were to be done well with an eye to
that incessant war which, whether open
or disguised, must always be carried on
between the nations. The Prussians were
perhaps the only people in Europe who
actually enjoyed this view of life. They
felt that a universe in which the struggle
for life was the supreme fact was per-
fectly suited to their peculiar faculties.

They were to themselves the best schol-
ars in that ugly school and sure to take
all the prizes. Other peoples did not like
the prospect; but it seemed to them full
of unwelcome truth. If they were to
survive they must learn from Prussia;
and for fifty years they have been learn-
ing from her.

But now we are beginning to see that
she had learned her lesson too well; that
she has, in fact, reduced it to an ab-
surdity. The rest of Europe, even if it
thought a struggle inevitable, tried to put
it off. Prussia, sure that she must win in
that struggle, refused to delay it. And
this refusal, this utter faith in her un-
lovely doctrine, has produced a combina-
tion against her, a counterfaith stronger
than her own. In what seemed "to her the
moment of triumph, for which she had
prepared with such fanatical diligence,
it has threatened her with a danger that
she never bargained for, with a diligence
and a fanaticism at least equal to her
own. Now we see, and she must see soon,
that the actual facts of human nature
are against her.

Men are of such a nature that they will
not endure the Prussian theory of life
when it is thoroughly and ruthlessly
practiced. They will not endure a na-
tion that lives for the struggle for life.
That is the lesson of this war, if only
we have the wit to learn it. It is that
militarism does not protect the nation
which is most thoroughly militarist, that
the greater the triumphs of militarism
the more certainly they produce a state
of mind in the victors which, dangerous
to the rest of the world, is more danger-
ous still to themselves. Disasters may
come to the nation which trusts too much
in righteousness. They are nothing to
the disasters which come to the nation
that trusts altogether in unrighteous-
ness.

But there is a danger, in all the exas-
paration and strain of this conflict, that
we shall ignore this most obvious lesson,
that we ourselves shall catch the Prus-
sian disease from our enemies. And no
talk about Prussian militarism will pre-
serve us from that disaster. Nothing
will preserve us from it except a clear
understanding of the nature of militar-

1030 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

ism and of the fact that it is ultimately
based upon fear, not upon hope; that it
is hypochondria, not health. This is a
dangerous world, and the only way to
safety in it for nations, as for individ-
uals, is to live dangerously. Prussia has
tried to live safely, and she has been
more threatened in her national exist-
ence than any other nation. She has
trusted in herself rather than in right-

eousness because righteousness seemed
too dangerous to her. The lesson of the
present war is that it is safer at last
to trust in righteousness. But that is a
lesson which all Europe as well as
Prussia has yet to learn, and the war
will have been a ghastly waste of all
good things unless it teaches that lesson,
unless it is known in history as the event
which refuted all the heresies of 1870.

England's Purpose Regarding Germany

By Dr. Paul Rohrbach

Noted German Publicist

Dr. Rohrbach is the author of a new brochure on the war, entitled " Der Deutsche Krieg,
in which he elaborates this latest German view of England's policy.

DURING the negotiations that pre-
ceded the war were England's
concessions in the matter of the
African colonies and the Bagdad rail-
way a mere mask? These concessions
were far-reaching and undoubtedly cre-
ated an excellent impression in Germany.
It was clear that, at any rate, a portion
of the British Government did not believe
in a German attack, and it was clear that
the German Chancellor had begun to
trust England. * * * It is one thing
to come to terms with a Germany which
feels itself under the pressure of its Con-
tinental position with France in the west
and Russia in the east, but it is quite an-
other matter to arrange things with a
Germany victorious over France and
Russia, and not obliged to consider them.
The Britisher felt that in the latter case
nothing could prevent Germany, with the
money she would force from France,
from building a fleet equal in power to
that of England. There was nothing to
prevent Germany from presenting Italy
with French North Africa, and in this
way making an Italian sea of the Medi-
terranean. England was faced with this
question, Will the future give birth to a
Germany which will be in a position to
oust England from her predominant posi-
tion? England decided this question af-
firmatively, and took her fatal decision.
England was always in a position at

any time to prevent the war. All she had
to do was to tell Russia that the mobil-
ization of the Russian armies against
Germany would not be followed by the
participation of England in the war. Had
England taken this attitude there would
have been no war.

Instead of this England satisfied her-
self in Petrograd with undecided and
half-hearted notes and negotiations, and
as the Russian Government, which de-
sired war, determined not to Ifsten to
the British advice, such as it was, the
catastrophe was inevitable.

England's aim in this war is by no
means to destroy Germany as a great
power on the Continent. All England
wishes to destroy is German competition
in trade and the German fleet, mercantile
and naval. In England it is considered
possible to deprive Germany of her fleet
without impairing her land power. It is
regarded as in the best interests of Eng-
land to give Germany enough military
power to cope with France and Russia
should these powers rise again and as-
sert themselves. It would have been
wiser for England had she arranged to
accept our victory as inevitable and se-
cured herself for the future. But Eng-
land did not agree to this. She pre-
ferred to fight for the continued suprem-
acy of England on the oceans and be-
yond them. Good. * * * Experts

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

1031

were right when they expected the troops
of the English Regular Army to sftow ex-
cellent fighting value. There is no doubt
that the French would have been broken
in the first storm had not their left wing
been strengthened by the British, not

only numerically, but still more in solid
fighting power. In the decisive hour of
the early campaign, and to a large ex-
tent, also, today, the British form the
backbone of the enemy's resistance. This
must be candidly admitted.

Central Europe — Central Africa

By Dr. Paul Leutwein

This f article was written for the Europaische Staats- und Wirtschafts-Zeitung by one
of the younger German authorities on colonial politics and economics, who spent much of his
early life in Africa and enjoys considerable prestige among his countrymen.

QJERIOUS discussion of the proposed
J^ economic union of the Central
Powers is in full swing, thanks to
the energetic action of the Central Eu-
ropean societies. By means of his many-
sided and illuminating book, " Central
Europe," Friedrich Naumann has spread
the idea so well that we may already
speak of it as the popular thing in the
two empires. " Central Europe " has al-
ready become a slogan, though it is by
no means always understood in its com-
plete significance.

Despite the fact that the pressure of
the times has forced both empires to play
the joint role of the " closed commercial
State " in an economic sense, there are
still a great many business men who
cannot conceive of a victory over do-
mestic frictions, because of their fear of
new tasks. Others lack the historical
spirit that would teach them out of the
history of the German Tariff Union how
the effect of an economic union on the
broadest kind of a basis is full of unex-
pected blessings and how all domestic
struggles are put aside, as if automat-
ically. They also lack that intuitive
thought by which our Friedrich List was
enabled to see the brilliant economic
and political development of Germany
through a protective tariff and a uni-
form railroad system fifty years before-
hand. Others, again, halt at the notion
of a "solid commercial State," as they
seem to believe that the period of prac-
tical proof in a politico-economic sense
will then be followed by an autarchy of
the broadest kind. These persons shall

receive my attention, as it is necessary
to show them that an economic Central
Europe is not the absolute end, but is
solely intended to form a doubly power-
ful factor in the future struggle for in-
ternational commerce by the allied
powers.

The problem of Central Europe, with
its extension to Bulgaria and Turkey, is
being brought to the front almost too
much, especially from the German side.
The South German who knows the feel-
ings our grandfathers entertained to-
ward Prussia will easily understand that
the laudable intention is liable to misin-
terpretations, especially on the part of
those of our allies who, like Turkey, are
the least ripe for the thought of economic
union, and are, besides, accustomed to re-
gard such deals as somewhat violent at-
tempts at opening up their territory by
the advanced States. It must be made
clear to them that the German friend re-
gards their interests the same as his own,
and that he is by no means striving, be-
cause of the feeling of his present isola-
tion, spasmodically to obtain in allied
lands territory producing the raw ma-
terial, the lack of which he must feel at
present.

The most effective way to allay such
apprehensions is by the avowal that Ger-
many is by no means inclined to place all
hopes for her economic future upon the
Central European economic union alone,
and that, as before, she holds fast to the
plan of creating her own fields for the
production of the raw material that she
needs; that, in a word, Germany will

1032 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

keep hef eyes upon the colonial problem
in connection with international com-
merce as well as upon that of Central
Europe.

What raw materials are most needed
by our country in war and peace has been
revealed to us with desirable clearness by
the long period of isolation. I mention
cotton, rubber, copper, rice, corn, fibres,
and the luxuries, tcbacco and coffee, from
the viewpoint of taxation; and, finally,
the fat and oil producing plants. To what
extent the latter were used we see by the
shortage of vegetable butter, oils, soaps,
cosmetics, and stuff for fodder. Purely
tropical growths, such as palms, sesames,
and earthnuts supplied us with these im-
portant materials in such increasing
measure that already before the war peo-
ple spoke of the Central European mar-
ket's hunger for oil. And Austria-Hun-
gary needs these products no less than
we. It is true that progressive Bulgaria
will enter the field as a purveyor in many
respects, but, because of its limited ter-
ritory, only on a modest scale. The mat-
ter of the supply of grain and animal
products is an open question. It is certain
that Russia, out of vital self-interest, will
again appear as a seller, and perhaps the
war has brought about a permanent re-
duction in the exaggerated needs of our
people in this respect.

What, then, do we really expect from
Turkey? We expect that after the war
she will devote her best efforts to her
economic development, either by the use
of her own forces or through the wise
attraction and employment of capable
brains and capital from Central Europe.
What Turkey expects from us, on, the
other hand, is patience and the respect
of her right to choose her own destiny.
Turkish sensitiveness in this matter, al-
though rather exaggerated, is, as has al-
ready been indicated, entirely compre-
hensible. Now, political economy is the
weak side of Turkey, and on the other
hand she is accustomed to regard herself
as a political factor of importance. Any-
body who bears in mind the fact that
Asiatic Turkey, three times as large as
Germany, with about 17,000,000 inhab-
itants and scarcely 4,000 kilometers of
railroads, without fully developed interior

waterways, is still a country whose im-
ports, both in the industrial and agri-
cultural field, far exceed its exports, or,
in other words, is behind the more pro-
gressive colonies, will perceive that a
great gap yawns between domestic econ-
omy and politics. A gap the closing of
which was rather hindered than helped
by the many attempts at development
made by the powers of the Quadruple En-
tente, attempts that were conflicting and
combined with all sorts of political aims.
This is realized by the rulers of the
Turkish State, and consequently they
need time to collect their thoughts in or-
der to work out their own salvation.

Furthermore, we cannot blind ourselves
to the fact that a great many important
raw materials must be obtained from ter-
ritory outside of the administration of
our friends. On the other hand, we dare
not simply count on the revival of inter-
national trade along the old lines after
the war. It is true that the movement
toward an economic union within the
Quadruple Entente is apparently not
making much progress. But within the
British Empire the firm desire has been
shown for a customs union, with the
mother land going over to protection. It
has also been shown that this dangerous-
ly tenacious and arrogant opponent is
determined, either to decide the war in
its favor in a political sense, or, follow-
ing the cessation of hostilities, to con-
tinue it in the economic field until one
side is exhausted. This makes it neces-
sary for Germany to make herself as
strong as possible in the matter of home
production, both for her own needs and
for purposes of international trade.

The combining of these ideas in the
term Central Africa merely signifies that
the efforts of our colonial circles are be-
ing concentrated more and more in this
direction. And they ought to be centred
that way, for in Central Africa are
found our two most important colonies
in the matter of tropical products that
enter into international commerce, and
whose reacquisition is constantly being
emphasized in competent circles. There,
in a mighty and uniform territory washed
by the waters of two oceans, not only
may all economic hopes be realized, but

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

1033

also the best conditions be found regard-
ing the ability of defense by our colonies
that will be so important in the future.
We shall not cite statistics here to prove
this. They are to be found in a num-
ber of treatises on the colonies, includ-
ing one by this writer. Besides, we shall
not take into account those who insist
upon the reacquisition of all our former
colonial empire for national reasons.
Who, indeed, does not sympathize with
their ideas? But we are as yet unable
to say by means of what pawns we shall
make good our claims in the face of our
principal opponents in the colonial field.
As yet we do not even know for sure
whether the idea of German Central
Africa can be realized. What we do
know, however, and what the Imperial
Chancellor emphasized in his last speech,
is that we need a strong colonial em-
pire and that, following a well-thought-
out plan, we must strive for its acquisi-
tion in the peace negotiations. In a
word, we are opportunely and genuinely
prepared, under any circumstances.

I already hear the voices of those who,
because of the difficulties involved, do
not care to understand this amplifica-
tion of the problem of Central Europe.
Of course, I am aware of these diffi-
culties. We need a unified system of
water and rail communication with
Austria-Hungary, and yet we have no

supreme authority over the traffic with-
in our own economic realm. The most
important inland water highway of the
coming Central Europe, the Danube, still
awaits, under special difficulties, the
work of dredging. Another chapter that
has been hardly touched is the matter of
the regulation of the unity of exchange.
And these are only the most essential
technical points preceding the real task
of creating a customs union. All these,
however, have nothing to do with the
notion of international colonial commerce.
The latter is, on the contrary, a much
simpler and a purely German problem,
but something that, taken in connection
with Central Europe, is calculated to
facilitate Germany's negotiations with
her allies. It is to be hoped that the
latter will recognize the fact that Ger-
many is by no means obliged to come
to an agreement with them.

I do not believe that the champions of
the Central European tariff union, guided
by considerations of international com-
merce, have overlooked the questions
raised here. They understand what is
meant when I say that if Central Europe
should come to nothing we should need
Central Africa all the more, and that
we must never think of Central Europe
without Central Africa, unless we wish
to regard Germany's future tasks from a
one-sided point of view.

Japan and the United States

By Dr. Kurt Eduard Imberg

The following article, consisting of excerpts from a treatise written for the Europaische
Staats- und Wirtschafts-Zeitung of Berlin, is an example of how the so-called Japanese-
American problem is regarded by many German publicists.

WHILE in Europe the entire ques-
tion of international politics
seems centred in the mighty con-
flict of nations the world power of the
Far East is taking steps to fish in
troubled waters and to avail herself of
the favorable moment, in which all the
European powers interested in Eastern
Asia are tearing each other to pieces,
to realize without much expense the
plans and dreams she has been cher-

ishing for years. For years the little
yellow man of Nippon has been casting
longing glances toward the Asiatic Con-
tinent and still further out over the
Pacific Ocean, with the isles and islets
that form the bridge to the longed-for
west coast of America. * * *

As long ago as the late '60s William
H. Seward, at that time Secretary of
State of the United States, declared that
the Pacific Ocean would be the principal

1034 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

stage upon which the great events of
the coming century would be played.
The hour for the fulfillment of this
prophecy is constantly coming nearer,
and the clash of the white and the yel-
low races in a battle for the rulership
of this ocean is inevitable. Here the
United States of America will have to
play the principal role on the side of
the white race. It will be obliged to
take up the struggle in order to call a
halt to the further advance of the as-
piring Japanese world power. * * *

There are two matters that have
become of particular weight in the Amer-
ican-Japanese question. One is the jeop-
ardizing of the interests of American
trade in China, and the other the Japan-
ese imperialism directed toward the East
that finds its main expression in the im-
migration and Mexican questions. When
we study the Asiatic policy of the United
States we see that the Union has al-
ways been guided by two principles — the
guaranteeing of tne integrity of China
and the maintenance of the so-called
open door in that country.

In order to protect and enlarge these
trade interests the policy of the United
States was' always to take great pains
to defend the equality of all nations in
the Chinese market. This activity was
especially displayed in the numerous
notes and protests directed by the Amer-
ican Government against the Russian
policy in Manchuria at the beginning of
the twentieth century. At that time the
interests of Japan and the United States
in China appeared to be about the same.
Both were interested in the maintenance
of the integrity of China. Only after
Japan's victorious war against Russia did
the parting of the ways begin. Japan's
establishing of herself in Korea, which
was finally declared a Japanese province
in 1910, as well as her economic advance
in Manchuria, could not by any means
be favorable to American interests. More
and more did the Japanese policy show
its true face; Asia for the Asiatics — that
is, the Monroe Doctrine in a Japanese
garb. * * *

Although it may be Japan's first task
to make East Asia a territory under
Japanese economic control, she un-
doubtedly has political intention's, as may

easily be seen in the Sino-Japanese
treaty of May 25, 1915, whose provisions
— aside from those of a purely economic
nature — contain many points that can
hardly be permanently reconciled with
the maintenance of the integrity of
of China. Of especial importance to the
United States is Article 6 of the fifth
section of this treaty, which provides
that China must first ask the advice of
Japan when it needs foreign capital for
working mines, building railroads and
port works, including dockyards, in the
Province of Fukien. The United States
has just undertaken to construct a mil-
itary harbor for China in Amoy, dn the
Province of Fukien, and it is likely to be
a severe blow to her economically and
a still harder slap to her repute and
prestige in Asia if she ds obliged to let
the Japanese slam the door in her face
in Fukien. * * *

Since the beginning of the world war
there has been feverish activity in the
United States directed toward the captur-
ing of the Chinese market thrown open
through the difficulties in which the Euro-
pean-Chinese trade is entangled * * *
Above all are the American efforts di-
rected toward mining and railroad under-
takings. But it is just here that the Amer-
ican capitalist is faced by a Japanese
competitor, who has — as is proved by the
new Japanese-Chinese treaty — special de-
signs upon the railroads and mines,
because the latter are of particular im-
portance for Japanese industry. In com-
petition with the American plans to
found a Sino-American bank that will
promote the commercial interests of the
Union the Japanese are about to estab-
lish a Japanese bank in China. Another
sign of the energetic commercial policy
pursued by the United States is found
in the recent opening of the American
Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai,
which is intended to look after and to
protect American trade interests in
China.

How will Japanese and American trade
in China come to an understanding? It
is hardly to be taken for granted that
the United States will give up the field
to the Japanese without more ado, and,
on the other hand, Japan will not re-

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

1035

linquish her plan to control the Chinese
market. Sooner or later the economic
interests of the two nations will clash at
this point. Economic struggles are gen-
erally followed by an armed conflict,
which may perhaps be delayed through
a yielding on one side or the other, but
which is inevitable, if both parties persist
in their demands.

But the Chinese question is not the
only point of irritation between the
United States and Japan. The imperial-
istic plans of the Japanese are not con-
tent with the idea of Japan as a con-
tinental power; they reach out over the
sea toward the islands of the Pacific and
over toward the western coast of Amer-
ica. * * *

It is known that Japanese have been
implicated in the repeated insurrections
in the Philippines, and that even to this
day these intrigues have not ceased.
Here, too, Japanese and American in-
terests conflict. Of course the United
States can do away with this bone of
contention by voluntarily leaving the
Philippines, as has indeed often been
proposed in all seriousness by American
politicians and writers who regard this
group of East Asiatic islands as nothing
but a drag on the Union, the cost of
which is in nowise covered by its value.
Such an abadonment of the Philippines
would, nevertheless, constitute a very
grave injury to the reputation of the
United States in all Asia, and, on the
other hand, would merely add impetus
to the Japanese imperialism directed
against the United States. The struggle
for the rulership of the Pacific Ocean,
looked upon by many as only a phantom,
has entered upon a new stage through
the establishment of Japan in the South
Sea. The next step will be Hawaii, which
already counts more than 80,000 Japanese
among its population of approximately
150,000.

Then we co*me to a third "stumbling
block " between the two States ; the im-
migration question. It would lead too
far, if we wished to go into the details
of the entire question of immigration,
But one point, which has again come to
the fore with vigor of late, deserves to
be brought out— namely, Japan's de-

signs in Mexico. These are by no
means of recent date. Some years ago
there were already rumors of alleged
negotiations for the purchase by Japan
of a coaling station on the Pacific Coast
of Mexico, which naturally were prompt-
ly denied from Washington and Tokio.
The value of such denials is well known.
A little later it was said that Japan
was planning great trading settlements
in Mexico. In short, the impression waa
created that Japan could not be quite so
disinterested in Mexico as the people in
Tokio were trying to make it appear.

Japan's interest in Mexico is easy to
see. For one thing it forms a good
naval base, which would greatly facili-
tate the closing of the Panama Canal
in case of war; for another, it forms a
handy gate for the invasion of that
paradise on the west coast of the United
States that has been closed since 1907,
but that is eagerly desired, neverthe-
less—California. * * *

What dangers for the United States
grow out of this policy of Japan seem
to have been recognized in many Gov-
ernment circles in Washington, although
perhaps not to their full extent, and
there is a demand from all sides for
resolute action on the part of the Amer-
ican Government in Mexico, where one
civil war has followed another for a num-
ber of years. Up to the present,
however, President Wilson has not
been able to decide to give heed to these
voices.

Of course it must be remembered in
this connection that the people of the
Eastern States of the Union do not really
believe there is any danger from Japan,
or, rather, do not want to believe it.
They do not consider the entire question
as serious as it is always represented
to be by the Westerners. * * * Of late,
however, the people in Washington seem
inclined to listen to the urgent exhorta-
tions from the West and to comprehend
that the fears regarding Japan's im-
perialism entertained by the inhabitants
of the Western States are not altogether
groundless. Senator Chamberlain, Chair-
man of the Committee on Military Af-
fairs, recently designated the Japanese
Army as " a standing demonstration

1036 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

against the United States." (NEW YORK
TIMES, Nov. 16, 1915.) This is naturally
at the same time a gentle hint to the
Americans to strengthen their army and
navy, so that in the hour of danger these
•will be in condition to resist any pos-
sible encroachments. * * *

We can hardly be mistaken when we
assert that, in general, sentiment in
Japan toward the United States is de-
cidedly hostile and warlike, and the im-
perialists are busily engaged in heaping
coals on the fire. In the United States,
on the contrary, people try nervously to
play the part of peace lovers, and to do
everything possible to do away with any-
thing that might disturb the relations
between Japan and America. They no
doubt feel on that side of the ocean that
at present the American means of de-
fense are not exactly " the biggest in
the world."

The world war and the coming peace
will hardly improve the relations between
the United States and Japan. On the
contrary, the " victory " of Japan over
the second power of Europe — for there

is no doubt that the people in the realm
of the Mikado will represent the capture
of Tsing-tao as a " victory " of the
Japanese arms — will also make Japan's
attitude toward America more conceited
and challenging. It is not to be won-
dered at if the Japanese Government
soon digs up the immigration question,
which was only temporarily settled by
the legislation and negotiations of 1907
in a way that did not at all turn out
as Japan wished, and to which the
Japanese Government only assented at
that time for political reasons. Now the
people in Tokio will demand that the
United States place the Japanese im-
migrants upon the same footing as those
from European lands. * * *

The clash between the United States
and Japan is inevitable, even though it
may be delayed for a few years through
clever political tacking. The sooner the
people in Washington perceive that the
only danger that really threatens the
United States comes from the west the
easier it will be for the United States to
meet it.

Refugees From Russian Poland

Miss Violetta Thurston, a nurse, has
written a book on the tragedy of the
refugees from Poland, who fled when the
Germans invaded the country. She says:

PROM the farms and homesteads of
Poland, the peaceful plains of Lith-
uania, the seaports of the Baltic
provinces, from the mountains of Galicia
and Ruthenia, they fled, to escape the
roaring cannon and the devastating fire
of the enemy.

Their new home in the interior of Rus-
sia was to them a foreign country, where
the language, religion, and customs dif-
fered very much from their own; but
their exile was made as little painful as
possible by the kindness of the Russian
peasants. Pity is one of the most marked
and most beautiful characteristics of the
Russian people. One may see the Russian
spldier at the front giving not only his
money and his food, but even his coat to
a prisoner who looks ill and miserable.

Bitter as the sufferings of the Belgian
refugees were, their physical privations
were as nothing in comparison with what
these people on the eastern frontiers have
been called upon to endure.

The mental and moral sufferings are,
of course, common to both nations. Bel-
gians and Poles alike have had to bear
the loss of country, home, friends, money
— in fact, all that makes life most worth
living to them, coming as strangers and
pilgrims into a strange land, dependent
for their very existence on the charity
of others. But Poland's spiritual tragedy
began a century and a half ago, when
her nation was split up and her kingdom
given to others. Now Pole is fighting
against Pole, who are brothers, with
the same nationality, language, religion,
and traditions.

Belgium again, is a little country
densely populated and in easy communi-
cation with Holland, France, and Eng-

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

1037

land; the exodus there began in the Sum-
mer and was certainly over before the
cold weather began. Russia, on the con-
trary, is an enormous country where the
distances between towns are very great
and where the climate is very severe.

The retreat had to be carried out very
swiftly, under unheard of difficulties,
and here there were no convenient neu-
tral countries close at hand to take off
some of the refugees. The whole refu-
gee problem was and is on an enormous
scale, and it is very much to the credit
of the Russian authorities that with so
little machinery available at first, they
were able to accomplish so much. For
it was no mean feat to evacuate in such
a short time whole villages, towns, prov-
inces, countries even, and get the in-
habitants removed from the danger zone,
where every available transport of any
kind was crowded already almost beyond
its utmost capacity with retreating
troops, fighting as they retired, and
hampered with the ammunition and sup-

plies of all kinds that must accompany
them.

The refugee problem will not by any
means be over with the end of the war.
The question of how it is going to be
made possible for these poor souls to re-
turn to their devastated, ruined homes
will then be a very difficult one to
answer. In trying to find a solution of
the difficulty it must be remembered
that it is not easy to help the people to
help themselves. The iron has now en-
tered into their souls. Many of them
have lost so much that they have lost
even hope, and they sit there apathetic-
ally, with their hands in their laps, wait-
ing for everything to be done for them.
Their self-respect has been lowered byv
the overcrowding, lack of privacy, and
the indiscriminate mingling of the de-
cent and the dissolute. Their physical
constitution has been injured by the pri-
vations of the long retreat, the scanty
food, and the unhygienic conditions of
their present surroundings.

Child Races of the World and Peace

By John H. Harris

[In The Contemporary Review, London]

WHAT place will be given to native
races during the discussion of peace
terms? The right of many mill-
ions of native peoples to some place in
the European Peace Congress, when it
takes place, needs only to be considered
to be admitted, and the only divergence
of view will probably be as to the method
of representing their interests. By far
the larger areas whose political status
will be affected by the war are now oc-
cupied by the so-called subject races,
and although the whole of these terri-
tories will "not be affected to the same
extent, it will certainly be found that
the destiny of each will be materially
changed by the present world conflict.

The German colonies total approxi-
mately 1,000,000 square miles. Belgian
Congo,' also, measures nearly 1,000,000
square miles, and owing to the peculiar
international position of this territory

and its great need of large financial sub-
sidies, some international assistance in
the matter of development must be ex-
tended to Belgium. Then there are the
huge areas of Mesopotamia, the New
Hebrides Archipelago, British Gambia,
and possibly French Dahomey. Several
of these countries will change flags,
while others will probably see a recti-
fication of their geographical frontiers.
The total area of these territories is
over 2,000,000 square miles, or ten times
the size of the German Empire in Eu-
rope. The total colored population is,
approximately:

Africa 23,960,000

South Pacific 160,000

Asia 4,000,000

Total 28,120,000

These territories and these peoples
will find. themselves, so to speak, thrown

1038 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

down on the Congress table for a re-
shuffle, but can it be argued in justice
that any such reshuffle should take
place without ascertaining in some way
or other the desires of the inhabitants
thmeselves ?

Who gave the European nations the
right to barter these people as a result
of war for which they had no shadow
of responsibility? The answer to this
question is self-evident. But while in
equity there can only be one answer,
common sense forces us to admit the
impracticability of summoning to a Eu-
ropean peace congress illiterate Man-
dingos, Fiots, Herreros, Fans, the senile
Polynesian, or the wild Bedouin.

Yet there is one point at least which
the European powers should concede to
those native races, namely, to agree that
within one year of the declaration of
peace another European and American
International Congress should be held
to amend the existing agreements for
maintaining the rights, liberties, and wel-
fare of native races,

This course is dictated no less by
equity than by the truest interests of
the colonizing powers of Europe and
America. It must not be overlooked
that almost every acre of those 2,000,000
square miles is sparsely populated, and
that hardly fifty miles of it is capable
of white colonization, except by the aid
of an edequate supply of colored labor.
If the great powers should make the
fatal blunder of reshuffling these ter-
ritories without at the same time agree-
ing to consider once again the supreme
problem of conserving the native popu-
lation, they would be almost better ad-
vised to surrender such areas once again
to the recuperative forces of so-called
barbarism, say, to the third and fourth
generations, for by that time the in-
digenous populations might possibly re-
gain their stamina.

The suffering of native peoples and
the depopulation of their territories
within the last fifty years have demon-
strated the evils of white industrialism,
and if civilization will heed the lessons
this martyrdom would teach it there is
yet time to stop that degradation, dis-

integration of tribal life, and the
thoughtless exploitation which will ulti-
mately spell economic ruin to the white
races no less than to the native tribes.
The depopulation figures of the tropical
and sub-tropical world are worth a mo-
ment's reflection. It is a disturbing
thought that the hecatombs of dead, as
a result of the great war, will probably
not reach, nor anything like reach, the
reduction of population, mainly by vio-
lent methods, among native peoples since
the 1884 American and European Con-
gress at Berlin.

No student of colonial affairs will deny
that since 1884 the depopulation of Cen-
tral Africa alone has exceeded 10,000,-
000. Herr Dernburg's was one of the
first authoritative voices raised against
the colossal destruction of African life
in German colonies, which he would
probably admit exceeded 500,000 in Ger-
man Southwest Africa, and almost as
heavy a proportion in Togoland. In the
Pacific Ocean the ghastly experiment
of the Franco-British Condominium in
the New Hebrides during the same pe-
riod has been primarily responsible for
a reduction of the population from 650,-
000 to less than 65,000.

What would not Germany have given
could she have called back to industrial
life the able-bodied Herreros? What
would the copra merchants of Europe
give today if they could call into activ-
ity again those prematurely dead Poly-
nesians of the South Seas? These
countless thousands of the world's work-
ers have gone, and it is useless to be-
moan the fact; but to the insane folly of
the past would be added the crime of to-
day if we ignore the lessons which a
thirty years' martyrdom of native races
should teach us.

One of the most encouraging features
of native labor questions is that the com-
mercial world is not only beginning to
realize the importance "of conserving na-
tive life, but is recognizing that the ap-
plication of fraud or force upon the labor
supply is a ruthless and unerring boom-
erang.

If one wished to state in general terms
the cause of this depopulation and suf-
fering it might be summed up in the

MAGAZINISTS ON WAR THEMES

1039

phrase, "too intimate a contact with
white social and industrial life," and this
general cause falls into four main cate-
gories: (a) Labor systems; (b) disease;
(c) the unrestricted sale of alcohol; (d)
sexual irregularities.

Just as the main cause of depopulation
has been a too intimate contact with
white industrialism, so has it been es-
tablished that the screening off of native
races from this contact in the early
stages of development has led to in-
creased productivity, happiness, and pros-
perity. Not only prosperity to the native
inhabitants, but to white industry outside
these areas, for the surplus laboring pop-
ulation freely overflows its borders to
the assistance of white enterprise. The

most complete illustration of this is
Basutoland, where, within a century, the
Basutos have increased from 40,000 to
400,000, while the annual outflow of
laboring population is no less than 70,000
men, who assist the white man in garner-
ing the wealth of South Africa.

The time has surely come when the
white colonizing nations should agree to
set aside an area in each colony or pro-
tectorate for the exclusive use of the
native inhabitants.

The just claims of the child races of
the world must be considered once again
by a European and American Congress on
Native Affairs, and peace terms must at
least include a definite pledge to such
congress.

Significance of the Word ?'Poilu"

By Maurice Barres

Member of the French Academy

The word " poilu," meaning bristly, woolly, hairy, as applied to animals, has come
into jocular and even serious use throughout France to designate the more or less un-
shorn French heroes in the trenches. An interesting comment on it from an eminent
pen is here translated for CURRENT HISTORY.

POILU is a word that only half
pleases. It pleases because it des-
ignates those whom all France
loves and admires, but it seems not to
respect them enough; it has a touch of
the animal. Besides, the word was not
bprn of ^this war. It has long been in
use in and around French barracks. It
was one of those thousands of words that
live a precarious life in the margins of
dictionaries. Littre writes: " Poileux, an
old term of contempt." It was Balzac
(the discovery is not mine) who, in 1882,
in "The Country Doctor," rehabilitated
these two syllables, and, for the first
time, seems to have given them the gen-
erous, vigorous, and cordial sense that
we see in them today. He used the word
once, then let it drop and thought of it
no more.

It lacks dignity. To my taste it belittles
those whom it is meant to laud and
serve. A hero can hardly be expressed
by this brazen-faced and slanderous epi-
thet. And yet, since it has taken root in

our battlefields now for more than a
year, one hesitates to speak ill of this
word, in which so many admirable acts
are somehow visible. It is winning its
historic titles. At certain moments when
we meet it we are compelled to admire
it. When the time comes to complete the
article in Littre devoted to Poileux or
Poilu, and to add to the old injurious
sense the new meaning of today, the lex-
icographer will have superb texts to cite
by way of example.

Here is one so beautiful that I cannot
resist the impulse to pass it along. Lis-
ten to this order of the day addressed
by a commander to his infantrymen. A
Lorraine soldier gave it to me, and you
will see in it how the word " podlu " may
yet become one of the most beautiful in
the French language:

" For the third time since the begin-
ning of the campaign the th Bat-
talion has just covered itself with glory.
Though harassed by the fatigue of six
consecutive days and nights of sentry

1040 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

duty, labor, and fighting, though a trifle
weakened in your confidence by the check
suffered in the first attack, you prompt-
ly got hold of yourselves upon discov-
ering suddenly a good course to follow
in order to avoid the flank fire of the
machine guns, and especially by follow-
ing step by step, shot by shot, the effi-
cient preparatory bombardment of our
'artillery. Suddenly sure of success, you
rushed forth together out of the trenches
at the signal of your commander, behind
your officers and section chiefs, leaped
like lions, and in less than four seconds
reached the enemy trench and swooped
into it like an eagle on its prey; but the
Barbarians, frightened by the vigor and
suddenness of your attack, fled aghast
without trying to make the least resist-
ance. As at Saint-Leon, as at Lille, you
proved that you were at all times a
picked troop capable still of furnishing,
after ten months of ceaseless and terri-
ble war, a resistless attack worthy of

your ancestors, the heroes of Sidi-
Brahim and Sebastopol, but especially
capable of conquering the stubborn re-
sistance of the detested Boche and hurl-
ing him "heels over head." With
Poilus like you, my dear friends, victory
is near and certain."

There can be no doubt that here the
word " poilu " is magnificent in its
weight, its freedom, and x compels us to
admire its savage nudity. Presented in
such a sweep of thought, it is full of
force and honor. It is true, bold, and
creates an image; it is a soldier of
Gericault, and one would be petty, in-
deed, to take offense at it.

How are words born? Spontaneously,
by sheer genius. This one is admirable
in its picturesqueness, but that is all. Its
fault is that it paints only the outside
of such a being as the soldier of 1916, in
whom we venerate a sublime morality
and the highest spirit of sacrifice.

Prince von Billow Foresees an Era of Hatred and Vindictiveness

German and English newspapers have given much space to the preface of
Prince von Billow's book, " Deutsche Politik," in which he says that " Hass und
Rachegefwhl " will influence international relations for many years to come, and
that Germany must protect itself from this hatred. He continues:

This war is a national war not only for us Germans; it has become one also
for the English, the French, and the Russians, and national hate once kindled
and sealed with blood will remain alive until it is replaced by a national passion
directed otherwise.

The only means of protection in future against the enmity and against the
renewed and the new lust for revenge in the west, in the east, and on the other
side of the North Sea on which Germany can rely is her own augmented strength.
Our opponents also will strengthen their armament on land and on the sea ; we,
however, must make ourselves stronger on our frontiers and on our coast, and
make ourselves more unassailable than we were at the beginning of this war.
We must do this, not, as our enemies allege, because we are striving for world
supremacy, but in order that .we may hold our own.

The outcome of this war must not be a negative one for us, it must be a posi-
tive one. It is not enough that we are not crushed, not reduced in size, or dis-
membered, and not despoiled ; we must have a plus, in the form of real securities
and guarantees as indemnification for unheard-of exertions and sufferings and as
pledges for the future. In view of the feelings against us that this war will
leave behind it a mere re-establishment of the status quo ante bellum would not
be a gain for Germany, but a loss. We shall be able to say with a good con-
science that our whole situation has been improved by the war only if the result-
ing strengthening of our political, economic, and military position considerably
outweighs the animosity kindled by the war.

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR

An Episode in No Man's Land

By Pierre Loti

Captain in the French Navy and Famous Academician

fTlHIS is the first time that I have
J_ found myself so absolutely and infi-
nitely alone, in the midst of this stage
setting of immense desolation, which to-
day, as it chances, is sparkling with
light, and is only the more mournful for
that. Until I reach the little wood to
which an errand of duty calls me I need
think of nothing; I need not occupy
myself with anything; I need not avoid
the shells, which would not give me time
to avoid them, nor even choose the spot
to set my foot down, since it sinks in
everywhere equally. And so it comes that
I drift back again to the mood of
former days, to my mood of mind before
the war, and all these things to which I
have grown used I see and judge as
though they were new.

Only a score of months ago who would
have imagined such a face of things?
Thus, these countless excavations — white,
because the soil of this region is white —
excavations that stretch on all sides and
which mark across the wilderness multi-
tudes of zebra-tracings — is it possible
that they mark out the only paths along
which our soldiers of France can move
today with a sort of half security ? * * *
Little sunken ways, some of them full
of curves, some of them straight, which
have been named " guts," and which we
have had to multiply, to multiply to such
a point that the earth is furrowed by
them to infinity! What an enormous sum
of toil they represent, these mole paths,
lying in a network over hundreds of
leagues! If we add the trenches, the
shelter caves, all these catacombs that
plunge down into the hearts of the hills,
one's mind stops dead before such a to-
tal of excavation, that might seem the
work of centuries.

And these things that look like fish-
ing nets stretched on all sides. If one
were not informed in advance and ac-

customed to them, could one divine what
they can possibly be? You might think
that gigantic spiders had been spinning
their webs among these myriads of posts,
sometimes planted in straight lines,
sometimes forming circles or half moons,
tracing across the wide expanse designs
that must be cabalistic in order better
to ensnare and envelop the Barbarians.
And besides they have terribly rein-
forced them, multiplying them twice,
nay, ten times, since my last passage,
these stake nets, and our web-spinning
soldiers have had to make among them
turnings and passages, with the enor-
mous reels of barbed wire which they
carry under their arms.

But there is one thing that you can
understand at the first glance, and which
adds to the grim horror of the whole
scene, and that is the inclosures sprinkled
here and there, the wooden fences that
shut in closely packed groups of poor
little burial crosses, made of two pieces
of wood. That you can tell at once, alas !
and see exactly what it is! Here they lie,
therefore, under the thunder of the big
guns, as though the battle was not yet
finished for them, our dear departed
ones, our unknown, magnificent heroes —
whom even those who weep for them
cannot now come nigh, because death is
passing ceaselessly in the air above their
silent little gatherings.

Ah! To complete the unreality of it
all, here comes a black bird of gigantic
wing-stretch, a monster of the apocalypse,
that flits past noisily high above me.
He flies on toward France, seeking doubt-
less the more sheltered region where
women and children begin to be found,
with the hope of slaughtering some of
them.

I walk on, if one call it walking, this
wearisome and inexorable process of
plunging through the mud. And finally

1042 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

I arrive at the little grove of trees where
we are to meet. I am glad of it, for my
helmet and cloak had become a heavy
burden under this unexpectedly burning
sun. It happens that I am the first to
arrive; the officer whom I have sum-
moned— to discuss new defense works,
new lines, of stake nets, new burrows — is
without doubt that blue outline making
its way hither, but he is still distant, and
.1 have still a few moments to continue
my meditation of the way hither before
it is time to become once more concen-
trated and exact. It is clear that the
place is not left entirely alone, for these
poor, half-stripped branches offer no
more resistance than mere sheets of pa-
per to the huge humming beetles that
pass through them from time to time;
but all the same a little wood like this
keeps you company, shuts you in, spreads
something of illusion about you.

I am on a bit of rising ground, from
which I look down on all the terrible
landscape, the succession of monotonous
hillocks zebra-streaked by whitish "guts,"
and the few trees disheveled by shrapnel
bullets. In the further distances these
intertwined wires, stretched in all direc-
tions, sparkle in the sun, somewhat like
" the Virgin's threads," which spread over
the meadows in Spring. And on all sides
the detonations of artillery keep up their
accustomed rumble, which goes on un-
ceasingly here, night and day, like the
roar of the ocean against the cliffs.

Ah! the huge bird has found some one
to speak to in the air! I see it all at
once assailed by a host of those little
tufts of white cotton — bursting shrap-
nel— which look so innocent, but which
are so perilous for birds of its breed. It
turns about hastily; its crimes are put
off for another time.

From behind a nearby rising ground
come forth a group of men in blue, who
will reach me before the officer who is
coming over there. It is the chance one,
the one among thousands of these little
processions which one meets incessantly,
alas! along the battle front, and which
form, so to speak, part of the stage set-
ting. At its head four soldiers are car-
rying a stretcher, and others are follow-
ing, to relieve them. Attracted also by

the illusory ^protection of the branches,
they stop instinctively at the entrance of
the little wood to take breath and change
shoulders. They come from the first-
line trenches, which are three or four
kilometers away, and are carrying a
" gravely wounded " man to an under-
ground hospital, w:hich is some quarter
of an hour away. They also had
not foreseen this vicious sun that
scorches one's head; they are wearing
their helmets and cloaks, and they feel
the weight of them as much as that of
the precious load which they take such
pains to carry steadily; more, they drag
along, on each foot, a thick shell of sticky
mud which gives them feet like elephants,
and the sweat runs in big drops over
their fine, tired faces.

" What is the matter with your wound-
ed man ? " I ask in a low voice.

In still lower voices they answer me:
" He is ripped up the belly — oh! the
trench surgeon told us that * * *." They
finish the sentence only with a shake
of the head, but I understand. For the
rest, he has not stirred. His poor hand
remains pressed to his brow and his eyes,
doubtless to protect them against the
baking sun, and I ask: "Why did you
not cover his face ? " " We did put a
handkerchief over it, Colonel, but he
took it away; he said he would rather
have it like that, so that he can still see
something between his fingers."

Ah! but the two last men, besides
sweat, have broad smears of blood across
their faces and running down their necks.
" Oh, nothing much the matter with us,
Colonel! " they tell me; " we got that as
we came along. We started to carry him
along the ' guts,' but it shook him too
much; so we came on outside in the
open." Poor, admirable dreamer! To save
their wounded man from jolting they
have risked all their lives! Two or three
of these huge death beetles which cease-
lessly hum past have smashed themselves
near them against the stones and have
sprinkled them with their fragments;
the Germans do not take the trouble to
shoot at a single passerby like myself,
but a group, and especially a litter, is
irresistible for them. Of the two who are
streaming with blood, one is, perhaps,

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

1043

not much the worse, but the other has an
ear torn off, and hanging only by a
shred of skin.

" You must get your wound dressed
by the surgeon immediately, my friend,"
I say to him.

" Yes, Colonel, we are on our way
there to the hospital. It suits exactly."

That is the only thing that has oc-
curred to him to say in complaint : " It
suits exactly." And he says it with such
a fine, quiet smile, while thanking me for
taking an interest in him.

I hesitate to go closer to look at their
gravely wounded man, who has remained
without stirring, for fear I might dis-
turb his last thoughts. I do go close to
him, however, very gently, because they
are going to carry him away.

Ah!' He is a mere lad! A village
boy; one can guess that at once by his
bronzed cheeks, which have just begun to
grow -pale. The sun, as he wishes, floods
his handsome 20-year-old face, which is
at the same time vigorous and candid,
and his hand is still held like a guard

before his eyes, which are set and seem
no longer to perceive anything. They
must have given him morphine to keep
him from suffering too much. Humble
child of our countryside, brief little life,
what is he dreaming of, if he is still
dreaming? Perhaps of his kerchiefed
mamma, who wept happy tears every
time she recognized his childish writing
on an envelope from the front ? Or is he
dreaming of the farm garden that held
his earliest years?

I see on his breast the handkerchief
with which they tried to cover his face;
it is of fine linen, embroidered with a
Marquis's coronet — the coronet of one of
his bearers. He had wanted " to go on
seeing things," doubtless in his terror of
the great night. But even this sun,
which must dazzle him, will soon cease
suddenly to be recognizable for him; to
begin with, it will be the half -darkness
of the hospital, and, immediately after-
ward, will begin for him the long in-
exorable night, in which no sun will ever
dawn again.

The Heart of a Soldier

[The subjoined letter was written by Giosue Borsi to his mother, to be delivered only in
case of his death. He died while leading his company to an assault on the Isonzo. The
writer was a poet of reputation in his country, and the letter reveals his high literary attain-
ments. The letter was shown by the mother to an Italian Senator, who recognized its
unusual literary quality and a copy was sent to his friend in America, the Rev. Paschale
Maltese, rector of a Catholic church at Van Nest, the Bronx, New York, by whom it was
translated into English and communicated to CURRENT HISTORY. Giosue Carducci, the winner
of the Noble Prize for poetry, stood as godfather of the infant Borsi at his baptism, hence his
name Giosue ; his poetry gave high promise of winning him also international fame]

MOTHER: This letter, which you
will receive only in case that I
should fall in this battle, I am
writing in an advanced trench, where I
have been since last night, with my sol-
diers, in expectation of the order to cross
the river and move to the attack.

I am calm, perfectly serene, and firm-
ly resolved to do my duty in full and to
the last, like a brave and good soldier,
confident to the utmost of our final un-
failing victory; although I am not equally
sure that I will live to see it. But this
uncertainty does not trouble me in the
least, nor has it any terror for me. I am
happy in offering my life to my country;
I am proud to spend it for so noble a

purpose, and I know not how to thank
Divine Providence for the opportunity —
which I deem an honor — afforded me, on
this fulgent autumnal day, in the midst
of this enchanting valley of our Julian
Venetia, while I am in the prime of life,
in the fulness of my physical and mental
powers, to fight in this holy war for
liberty and justice. All is propitious to
me, all is favorable to die a beautiful and
glorious death; the weather, the place,
the season, the opportunity, the age. A
better end could not have crowned my
life, and I feel the pleasure to have made
a good and generous use of it. Do not
grieve over my death, mother, or else you
will offend my good fortune. Do not

1044 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

weep, mother, for it was written in
Heaven that I should die. Do not mourn,
mother, or else you would regret my
happiness. I am not to be mourned but
envied.

THE SACRIFICE

You know the ineffable hopes that
give me comfort because they are the
very same hopes in which you also have
placed all that is dear to you. When you
shall read these words of mine, I will be
free, unfettered and in a safe place, quite
far from the miseries of this world. My
struggle will be finished and I shall be
peaceful; my daily death shall have come
to an end, and I shall have reached the
place on high, to the life without end. I
shall be face to face with the Judge whom
I have greatly feared, with the Lord
whom I have greatly loved.

Think of it, mother dear, when you
shall read these words. I shall view
you from Heaven, side by side with our
dear ones, with father, with my dear
Laura, with Dino, our guardian angel.
We shall be in the regions above, all
united to celebrate your arrival, to watch
over you and over Gino, to prepare for
you, with our prayers, the place of your
everlasting glory. Should not this thought
alone be sufficient to dry your tears and
to fill you with unspeakable joy?

No, no, weep not, my dear and saint-
ly mother, and be brave, as you have
always been. Should the pleasure of
having offered to our adored Italy, this
glorious land, this land predestined by
God, should the pleasure of having of-
fered the sacrifice of the life of one of
your sons be not sufficient for you, re-
member, nevertheless, that you must not
rebel, not even for one instant, against
the divinely wise and divinely loving de-
crees of our Lord. If He wanted to reserve
me for other work, He could have per-
mitted me to survive. Since He has called
me to Himself, it is a sign that such
was the best thing that could have hap-
pened and the best thing for me. He
knows what He is doing, and it remains
for us to bow and to adore, accepting
with trustful joy His most exalted will.
HOLY BATTLES

I do not bemoan life. I have tasted
of all its insane infatuations and have

withdrawn with an insurmountable weari-
ness and disgust.

Like a young prodigal son, after so
many wanderings, having returned to
the house of the father, I could have
hoped now, and reasonably so, to taste
of the good joys, the joys of duty well
performed, of the good practiced and
preached, the joys born of art, of labor,
of charity, of a fruitful mind.

Side by side with the good, beautiful
girl whom you know and esteem, and
whom I have always loved, always so
tenderly, timidly, and faithfully loved,
even in the midst of my errors and blame-
worthy blunders, I could have hoped to
make a good husband and a good father.

In the world there are so many battles
to fight, for love, for justice, for liberty,
for the faith, and for a time I must con-
fess, I presumptuously believed myself
predestined and assigned to the arduous
and terrible task of winning one or an-
other of these battles.

All this was, I admit, beautiful, flat-
tering, desirable, but it cannot compare
with my present lot. This is the very
truth, and indeed I cannot say whether
I would really be satisfied if the writing
of this letter would have been in vain.
Life is sad; it is a painful and annoying
duty, a long exile in the uncertainty of
our own lot. In order that life might go
quickly in accordance with my wishes,
and without leaving me in a thousand
disappointments, there would be need of
many very rare and difficult occurrences.
Besides, I am and I. feel weak, I have not
the least confidence in myself. The whole
battle against the ingratitude and wick-
edness of the world would not have
frightened me as much as the battle
against myself. It is better, therefore,
dear Mother, as it has happened. The
Lord, in His wise and infinite goodness
has reserved for me just the destiny that
was fit for me; a destiny that is easy,
sweet, honorable, rapid; to die in battle
for one's country.

With this beautiful and praiseworthy
past, fulfilling the most desired of all
duties as a good citizen toward the land
that gave him birth, I retire in the midst
of the tears of all those that loved me,
from a life toward which I felt weary

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

1045

and disgusted. I leave the failings of
life, I leave sin, I leave the sad and af-
flicted spectacle of the small and mo-
mentary triumphs of evil over good. I
leave to my humble body the weight of
all my chains and I fly away, free, free
in the end, to the Heavens above, where
resides our Father, to the Heavens above
where always His holy will is done. Just
imagine, dear Mother, with what joy I
will receive from His hands even the
chastisements that His justice will im-
pose on account of my sins. He, Him-
self, has paid all these chastisements by
His superabundant merits, a God of
mercy and of love, redeeming me with
His precious blood, living and dying here
below for my sake, Only through His
grace, only through Jesus Christ, could I
have succeeded that my sins be not my
eternal death. He has seen the tears
of my sorrow, He has pardoned me
through the mouth of His spotless spouse,
the Church. I do sincerely hope that the
Madonna, so loving and kind toward us,
will assist me with her powerful help, in
the instant when all my eternity will be
decided.

FORGIVENESS

And as I am about to speak of for-
giveness, dear Mother, I have only one
thing to say with all simplicity. Forgive
me. Forgive me all the sorrows that I
have caused you; all the agonies that
you have suffered on my account, every
time I have been ungrateful, stubborn,
forgetful, disobedient toward you. For-
give me, if by neglect and inexperience I
have failed to render your life more com-
fortable and tranquil, since the day when
my father by his premature death in-
trusted you to my care. Now I under-
stand well the many wrongs I have been
guilty of toward you and I feel all the
remorse and cruel anguish now that dy-
ing I have to intrust you to the provi-
dence of the Lord. Forgive me lastly,
this final sorrow that I have inflicted
upon you, perhaps not without stubborn
and cruel inconsideration on my part, in
giving up my life voluntarily for my
country, fascinated by the attractions of
this beautiful lot. Forgive me also if I
have not sufficiently recognized and tried
to compensate the incomparable nobility

of your soul, of your heart, so immense
and sublime, Mother truly perfect and
exemplary, to whom I owe all that I am
and the least good I have done in this
world.

CHRISITAN COURAGE

I have so many things to say to you
that a book could hardly contain them.
Nothing else, therefore, is left me but
to recommend you to our Gino, on whose
goodness, on whose integrity, and on
whose strength of will, I put all my trust.
Tell him in my name to serve willingly
our country, as long as she will have
need of him, to serve her with abnegation,
with ardor, with enthusiasm, even unto
death, should that be necessary. Should
he be destined to live a long and strug-
gling life, let him be equal to it with
serenity, with firmness, with indomitable
love for justice and honesty, trusting
always in the triumph of good with God's
grace. Let him be a good husband and
a good father, let him raise up his chil-
dren in the love of God, respect for the
Church, fidelity toward our King, to the
observance of the law, to scrupulous de-
votion to our beloved country. Think
often of us here above, speak of us
among yourselves, remember us and love
us as when we were alive because we
shall be always with you.

Pray often for me, for I am in need
of it. Be courageous in the trials of life
as you have always been strong and
energetic in the midst of the tempest of
your earthly career, continue to be
humble, pious, charitable, so that the
peace of God may always be with you.

GOOD-BYE

Good-bye, Mother, Good-bye, Gino, my
dear and my beloved. I embrace you
with all the ardor of my immense love,
which has increased a hundred-fold dur-
ing my absence in the midst of the dan-
gers and hardships of the war. Here, far
away from the world, always with the
image of imminent death, I have felt
how strong are the ties that bind us to
this world, how mankind is in need of
mutual love, of faith in each other, of
discipline, of harmony, of unity, what'
necessary and sacred things are the
fatherland, the home, the family; how

1046

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

blameworthy is the person who renounces
these, who betrays and oppresses them.

Love and freedom for all, this is the
ideal for which it is a pleasure to offer
one's life. May God cause our sacrifice

to be fruitful, may He take pity upon
mankind, forgive and forget their of-
fenses, and give them peace; then, O
dear Mother, we shall not have died in
vain. Just one more tender kiss.

Story of a Russian War Prisoner

A Remarkable Experience

This very unusual narrative, with its light on Austrian prison conditions, appeared in the
Russkoe Slovo, Moscow, June 30, 1916. It was written by a petty officer of the Russian
Army at the request of the paper's Paris correspondent. The correspondent tells of a party
of thirty Russians who had recently arrived in Paris from Italy, all war prisoners from Aus-
tria, who had managed at different times to slip through the lines on the Italian front,

I WAS taken prisoner by the Magyars
in the Carpathians. We were driven
to the station of Kashitzi, where
we found more Russians, I don't know
how many, and were placed in dirty cars,
from which cattle had just been removed.
The stench was terrible, the crowd un-
thinkable. The doors were locked all the
time. * * * We traveled two days;
on the third we arrived in a camp called
Lintz. What did I see in this camp?
Filthy barracks, naked bunks on which
our soldiers were scattered, pale, ex-
hausted, hungry, nearly all barefoot or
in wooden clogs. Many were suffering
from inflamed feet and exhaustion. I
don't know how they call it in medicine,
but to my mind it was the fever of starva-
tion. One gets yellow, trembles inces-
santly, longs for food. * * *-

The prisoners were fed very poorly,
mainly with turnips, beans, and peas.

Once a soldier decided to complain to
Francis Joseph or Wilhelm. He went
up to an electric pole, formed his fingers
so that it looked as if he were speaking
into a telephone horn, and shouted,
" Hello, Germans, give us some more
bread! " He called and knocked with his
fists for some time, but, of course, re-
ceived no reply. Many soldiers made
fun of him at first, but others began to
look for a way to complain against such
treatment of war prisoners. Meanwhile
the bread became poorer and poorer in
quality and less in quantity. The meals
consisted of beans, and in addition there
were bugs in the beans. We got meat

three times a week, the other days we
got herring.

On the 24th of May, 1915, a company
was recruited among us to be sent away
to do some " agricultural " work. The
soldiers would not believe it, claiming
that peace was near. I was in the first
contingent. Our train was passing be-
tween mountains covered with evergreen.
Every now and then it would shoot
through tunnels. This surprised me great-
ly. I understood that we were not going
in the direction of Russia. And so it was.
We finally arrived in a place, where the
thousand of us were quartered in one
building. We at once began to be treated
differently, much more insolently and
severely. On the 27th we were driven
to the fields to work. We wondered what
the agricultural labor we were to do
could be. We were supplied with shovels
and pick-axes, led to a wood on a hill
some 1)600 meters high, mustered into
rows, and ordered to dig a ditch — that
is what the Germans called it — but we
called it otherwise. It became clear that
we were to dig trenches.

The first day passed in idleness and
grumbling. All unanimously refused to
work, even if we had to pay with our
lives for it.

We waited for the following morning.
The guards came to take us out to work,
but we said that we would not dig
trenches. Then the Colonel came and
asked in Russian: " Why don't you want
to work?" We all answered: "This
work is against the law. You are violat-

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

1047

ing the European laws and breaking all
agreements by forcing us to construct
defensive lines for you." The Colonel
said: " Look out, don't resist, or we will
shoot every one of you. We don't care
now for the laws to which you point us.
All Europe is at war now — this is no time
for laws. If you don't go to work, I will
have you shot."

We all exclaimed: " We won't. Shoot
us, but we will not do the work."

All of the 28th we were in our yard. No
food was given us. Thus we were held
for three days without food. On the
fourth day a company of cadets arrived.
Leading them was the executioner, with
stripes on his sleeves. They loaded their
rifles, holding them ready. Then the
Colonel asked: " Who will go to work?"
The crowd answered " No! " The Colonel
said: "I am sorry for you, boys, you
don't understand that you are resisting
in vain." Suddenly the crowd was split
into two. Those who agreed to work
were given dinner and put to work. The
other half, in which I was included, was
led away to another yard. From among
us ten were picked out and taken away —
we knew not where. We were ordered
to lie on the ground with our faces down-
ward, and not to turn our heads.

On June 2 there remained only fifty
men who still refused to work, suffer-
ing hunger for the sixth day. The
ten soldiers who were daily taken away
from us were subjected to, besides hun-
ger, suspense in the air from rings,
with their hands tied to their backs. In
about thirty minutes one would lose con-
sciousness, and then he would be taken
down to the ground. After he recovered
his senses he would be asked if he agreed
to work. What could one answer? To
say " I refuse " meant another ordeal.
He would begin to cry and agree to work.
The following day our heroes were led
out into the open, ten were selected from
our midst, arranged in a line facing the
rest of us, and told that they would be
shot immediately. Of the remainder half
were to be shot in the evening, the other
half the following morning. Their graves
had been dug by the ten heroes them-
selves. I have not the slightest hesitancy
in calling them so.

Then a space was ^cleared, and Ivan
Tistchenko, Feodor Lupin, Ivan Katayev,
and Philip Kulikov were ordered for-
ward. The first was Ivan Tistchenko.
An officer and four cadets approached
him. The officer asked him if he would
agree to work. He answered " No," and
crossed himself. His eyes were bound
with a white 'kerchief, and these pitiless
and unjust cadets fired at the order of
the officer. Two bullets pierced his head
and two his breast, and the brave fellow
fell to the wet ground noiselessly and
peacefully.

In the same manner the second, third,
and fourth were treated. When the fifth
was led forward he also refused to work,
and they already had his eyes bound.
But some one in the crowd exclaimed:
" Halt— don't fire ! " And the comrades
asked for his life, all agreeing to go to
work. And I never learned the identity
of the chap who saved that fellow's life
and many other lives.

We remained in that camp for two and
a half months. Then we were removed
closer to the front, to a locality inhabited
by Italians. Our soldiers there would
inquire from the Italian laborers, to
whom the guards paid no attention,
where the boundary lay. We learned the
direction and the distance to the boun-
dary, which was about thirty miles. It
was even nearer to the Italian front.
And so on Sept. 29 a comrade and I de-
cided to escape.

(Some particulars of the escape have
been deleted by the Russian censor.)

Toward dawn we emerged from the
thick of the pine trees and bushes, and
descended to the base of the mountain.
At our feet was a stream, about fifty
feet wide, rapid, and full of rocks. Here
we made good use of our training in
gymnastics. My comrade, a tall fellow,
was light on his feet. He jumped like
a squirrel from rock to rock. To me it
seemed that I would slip and be swept
away by the current. My comrade was
already on the opposite shore when I,
making my last jump, failed to gain the
beach. , Fortunately he was quick to
stretch out to me his long stick, and drew
me out of the water as wet as a lobster.
We walked along the stream all day

1048 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly 'Magazine of The New York Times

without encountering anybody. At the
end of the day we came in sight of a tiny
village, but there were no people nor
soldiers to be seen. Only near one house
smoke was rising. We decided to ap-
proach stealthily and investigate. We saw
an old woman at the fire, bending over
a kettle of sweet corn. We surmised that
the inhabitants of the village must have
deserted it because of its proximity to
the front, while the old woman refused
to abandon her home.

We approached her and confessed that
we were Russian soldiers. She thought
long. What " Russian " meant she did
not know, but she understood the mean-
ing of the word " soldiers." She pre-
sented us with some of her sweet corn
and pointed out the way to the Italian
front.

It was six in the evening when we came
upon an advanced Italian post. The
sentinel stopped us with a " Halt! " He
was pointing his rifle at us, showing that
he would shoot if we advanced. He called
for his superior. We were searched and
taken into their quarters. An officer
soon came in. Through an interpreter he
asked us for our names, regiments, and
army branches. He gave each of us a
package of cigarettes.

Only then I understood that we were
received as guests. When the officer
gave us the cigarettes, saying " Bravo,
Russi! " the soldiers began showering
us with cigarettes, chocolate, and confetti.
One soldier guessed better than the rest;
he brought us a dish of soup, meat, and
a bottle of wine. After this there was a
regular wedding feast. Each of the sol-
diers brought something to eat, cheese,
butter, sardines. We, knowing our condi-
tion, abstained from eating too much.
Thinking that on the following day we
would have to suffer hunger again, we
put all the presents into a bag presented

us by one of the Italians. Thus we accu-
mulated about fifteen pounds of bread,
cheese, butter, chocolate, lard, and boiled
beef. Then the Italians noticed that our
clothes were wet, and began presenting
us with underwear and clothing, so that
we soon changed our appearance. We
were anxious to converse with them. The
interpreter, who spoke Russian imper-
fectly, had a great deal of work. Just
the same, I will never in my life forget
his first words in Russian, as he asked
us, by order of the officer: "Who are
you — brothers ? " In tears we answered
him that we were Russian officers es-
caped from captivity; he asked it so
kindly, and we were infinitely gladdened
by his sweet words.

The following day we were take^i to the
corps headquarters. Officers would come
in, shake hands — some even kissed us,
which embarrassed us. Unwittingly
tears would come to our eyes when we
recalled our life in the prison camp and
this sudden change for the better.

The General also visited us. He pressed
our hands, gave each of us a package
of cigarettes, and presented us with 10
lire in gold. We wanted to decline the
money, but the interpreter said, " Take,*'
and we did.

We lived for about a month in Italy.
What a noble people! — soldiers, civilians,
and officers. It is impossible to describe!
At every station, (on the way to France,)
the public would surround us, all anxious
to do us some favors, all showing their
deep affection for the Russians. Once
a Sister of Mercy was distributing coffee
to our party as the train began to move.
She ran along till the train gained full
speed, desiring not to leave some of us
without coffee. Our soldiers would wonder
at the affection of the entire Italian
people for the Russians, and would shout
incessantly: " Viva Italia! Viva Italia!"

German Flame Throwers in Action

By an Eyewitness

A French correspondent on the Somme
front obtained this glimpse of one of the
most thoroughly " modern " horrors of
war from an injured soldier in a first-
aid station near the advanced trenches :
IT was decided to withdraw us to a
better position some fifty yards in
the rear. Then the Captain called
for some one to stay behind to watch and
signal the enemy's movements. That's
my regular job, so I fixed myself about
fifteen feet up in a cleft of a big tree
and seized a telephone which was con-
nected with the nearest battery. From
there I could see a German trench at the
edge of a little wood about eighty yards
from the trench my comrades had
vacated.

For nearly an hour nothing happened.
Occasionally I noticed heads peering
from the Boche trench trying to see into
the empty trench which was hidden from
them by a slight swelling of the ground
just before it. They would have been
a splendid mark for a sniper, but I had
other work this time. Suddenly a group
of about forty Boches crept forward from
the wood, rapidly followed by the best
part of a company. I telephoned: "Enemy
advancing, led by a detachment of
' flamenwerfer,' " for I had recognized
the devilish apparatus carried by the
foremost group. When the latter were
about thirty feet from the empty trench
they halted in a hollow just below the
rise in the ground, and then, with ap-

palling suddenness, a dozen jets of white
and yellow flames darted up to fall plumb
into the trench. The dense smoke hid the
rest of the Germans, and almost choked
me, but, thanks to my mask, I was able
to gasp information to the battery.

It was then I had a glimpse of what
hell must be like. Our gunners had the
range to an inch, and a torrent of shells
burst right among the fire-throwers.
Great sheets of flame sprang up, one jet
from an exploding container just grazing
me, burning my clothes and scorching
my ribs rather badly. But it was im-
possible to escape. The ground was a
sea of fire. In the midst of it the Ger-
mans, like living torches, were dying
horribly. One man spun around like a
top, not even trying to run away until
he fell in a pool of flame. Others rolled
on the ground, but the blazing liquid ran
around them everywhere, and I could
smell the horrible odor of burning flesh.

I don't think any fire-throwers es-
caped. Their screams, heard despite the
cannonade and rifle fire, seemed to con-
tinue terribly long. The company be-
hind them appeared panicstricken. As
the smoke lifted I saw them running back
to the wood, and our mitrailleuses did
severe execution. I was nearly fainting
with the fumes and pain from my burns.
The Captain sent a patrol, which found
me hanging limply in the tree fork They
had trouble getting me, but luckily the
Germans were too staggered to interfere.

The Gas Attack

By Eugene Szatmari

Lieutenant in the Austrian Army

This description of a battle between Austrians and Russians, in which gas played a
leading part, was written by an Austrian officer on the southeastern front.

THE night is starlight, not pitch dark, less. Bright flashes from field rockets
__ ... *.!__ -i XT- ~e T rip the dark blue velvet curtain asunder,

JL as in the dreary month of January,
but of a strange, weird, dark blue,
and the shadows are long, scattered, and
charming. This lukewarm night is rest-

and hardly has the glare died away,
hardly have quiet, invisible caterpillars
sewed the curtain together again, when

1050 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the shining finger of a searchlight be-
gins to feel its way through the blue
night. Rifles crack and cannon roar at
us from the east. Since an early hour in
the morning the guns have been thunder-
ing toward us from the north, and the
lazy rattle of the distant drumfire pene-
trates with difficulty through the trees
of the shot-torn forest. Now they have
begun here, too. Heavy shells crash
through the trees with deafening roars,
severed branches fall slowly, but noisily,
rifle bullets come whistling along and
rattle through the leaves. My ten tele-
phones hum and sing like mad. But my
batteries are silent. We do not waste our
shots in the air.

Now a rocket goes up. It goes high,
very high, and sends down its colored
stars in a crackling rain of fire. There
is another, and still a third — and the
cannon fire becomes still heavier, the
shrapnel crashes like mad, and shell after
shell whizzes toward us in a howling
arch, to burst as it falls. We know what
all this means, the sign that has just
been made; short and sharp comes the
message hissed over the telephone : " A
gas attack! "

On comes the poison wave — we are
armed for it. Gas masks to the front!
In the twinkling of an eye we have trans-
formed ourselves into masked robbers
and are waiting in curiosity, braced for
the battle with the unknown weapon,
against the invisible, creeping, and, up
to now, to us unknown enemy. What is
it like, this gas? — -and we await the com-
ing wave almost with longing. Is it really
coming after all?

It is coming. Something creeps into
my eyes and I buckle my mask on again.
So it is here, then, the sneaking enemy,
the poison wave that' we cannot destroy,
the opponent wearing the cap of invisibil-
ity. Now it sweeps over us, overwhelms
us; we are in its power, and our lives
are dependent upon the potash tube that
gives us air. We stand in the midst of
its infected air, and its dragonlike breath
toys with our clothing. What a frightful
yet miserable enemy! The guns continue
to roar in its neighborhood, and the
charging enemy's cries of, "Hurri, hurri!"
are smothered in the furious rattle of the

machine guns. They don't need any
masks, nor do the cannon that are now
spewing death in a hundred forms upon
the enemy from the hidden depths of the
forest, barking and howling like ever-
faithful iron dogs. They are armed
against the gas, for they need no air;
and they stretch their bronze bodies out
in the mad fire as they run back and
forth on their carriages. What a mean
weapon, what a wretched enemy is this
invisible opponent!

I feel a strange weight on my chest.
The air I am breathing is heavy and op-
pressive; I have to swallow at every
breath I draw. The mask lies on my
head like lead, and its big glass peep-
holes make my eyes ache indescribably.
I feel as if I stood in a leaden diving suit
at the bottom of the sea, with the weight
of the whole ocean upon me. Air! I
must have air, and I loosen the straps of
my mask, but a terrible shooting pain
grips my temples, and instinctively' I
haul them tight again. With the tele-
phone in my hand, with the leaden weight
of the mask on my head, half uncon-
scious, I shout orders into the instru-
ment. The great glass eyes with which
I am now looking bore dully into the
roaring, rattling, flashing, glaringly
convulsive night, the night that only an
hour before was a quiet blue velvet cur-
tain and that now has become a mad
monster, spitting poison and death. I
try to go to the telescope, and I step on
something soft. I bend down. It is a
dead mouse. It didn't have any mask.
What a fearful opponent, this sneaking,
invisible enemy!

I can stand it no longer. My temples
thump like mad and I feel my blood
course wildly through my veins. I tear
apart the straps of the mask — and take
a breath of pure, fresh, good air! There
is a light breeze from the south. It has
blown away the poisonous waves. Thei
battle dies down; the rattle of shots be-
gins to become weaker and the cannon,
are steadily becoming quieter. The
flashing lights that pierced the night are
extinguished. It becomes calmer. I
breathe, breathe deeper, while once more
the dark blue velvet curtain of the night
slowly and softly settles down over us.

My Worst Experience

By a Man Who Stopped a Bullet

The writer of this vivid narrative, a British soldier, was wounded in Mesopotamia during
an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Kut-el-Amara, shortly before its fall.

I SLIPPED my left hand into my tunic
and was surprised to feel the hot
blood pouring out. Then it dawned
on me that I had been hit, and pretty
badly, too. My equipment was hurting
me, so I took it off.

I felt very dizzy, and decided to try and
get back as far as I could. I stood up, a
very unwise thing to do, considering that
I was about 150 yards from the Turkish
trench and must have made van easy
mark, but I was not hit again imme-
diately. My legs gave way and I col-
lapsed and lay flat for a time. I thought
if I was not to bleed to death I must
make an effort to put my field bandage
in place. So with difficulty I pulled it
from my tunic pocket. The outer cover-
ing; came off easily, and I took out one of
the. packets, but could see no way to slit
it open. Finally I gripped the edge of
the packet in my teeth and tore at it with
both hands till it opened. I put the pad
on the wound, as near as I could, but
had no means of keeping it there, so I
staggered to my feet and ran on, keeping
the pad in place with my left hand. I be-
lieve I covered another fifty yards when
I dropped again and lay in a kind of
stupor.

I was aroused by the almost continu-
ous " krock " of bursting shrapnel. Shells
were dropping right and left, and the air
was full of moaning and screaming as
the bullets flew by. I managed to get
on my feet again, although the effort
made the blood spurt out anew. The
sodden pad had slipped down and a burn-
ing pain in the pit of my stomach caused
me to double up in agony and slide on to
my knees. I started crawling painfully
along until I came to a small mound
which would at least afford " head over."
I crept behind it and lay in the only posi-
tion I could, on my left side.

I passed my hand over myself to feel
for a wound, but could not find one. The
bullet had entered the small of my back

and lodged under my breast bone. Grad-
ually the more intense pain passed away,
leaving a not unpleasant sense of numb-
ness over all my body.

The persistent calling of a man in pain
brought me back to consciousness. The
pitiless sun was blazing high in the
heavens, and I felt hot and dry. Some-
body was shouting " Fetch the stretcher-
bearers, you fools ; are you going to leave
me here? " At first I felt very sorry
for him, but soon wished he would stop,
for I had. a shocking headache. I judged
it to be about midday, and thought that
in another six hours I had a good chance
of being brought in.

I was horrified to see that the water
of the Suwaicha Marsh, which was on
our right flank, had risen considerably,
and I feared for any of our wounded who
were further out on the right and un-
able to crawl away from the menace. The
man who was shouting stopped, and
everything was strangely calm and peace-
ful. I felt very happy and contented
then, for as long as I kept quite still the
pain was very dull, so I began singing
and mumbling away in a quiet voice :

Where my caravan has rested

Flowers I'll strew thee on the grass.
I sang again and again, accompanied by
a strange roaring in my chest. My cara-
van, I thought, had rested in some very
unusual places, but none so unusual as
this. And what was the use of talking
about the grass in the desert of Meso-
potamia, where there is nothing but the
yellow earth, the blue sky, the hot sun,
and dirty water?

There was a water bottle, equipment,
and rifle lying close to my head, and I
have a vague remembrance of a Sikh
lying beside me for a time and then
jumping up and running back. I slowly
put my right arm up, caught the sling,
and dragged the bottle nearer. I pulled
the cork out somehow, and propped the

1052 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

bottle against my face, with the neck to
my lips, but was much upset to find I
had not the strength to lift it up. Tears
rolled down my cheeks after I had made
two or three attempts, for I was very
thirsty. I sang no more, as my throat
was harsh and lumpy. So I lay staring
at the yellow and blue till I lost con-
sciousness once more.

This time I was roused by our own
guns, and the sound was most comforting.
" Giving 'em hell," I thought gleefully.
They bombarded for about an hour, and
then I slipped back into unconsciousness.
It was getting dark when I came to again.
A man was standing close to me, staring
round the field. Somebody had put my
sun helmet on my head. He came over
to me. " Are the stretcher-bearers com-
ing? " I asked, and he told me I was the
next to be moved. It was not long be-
fore the bearers came, and they put the
stretcher behind me. It was painful work
getting on the stretcher, as I could not
bear to have my body touched anywhere.
However, it was managed at last, and I
lay on my left side.

I suppose they went as gently as they
could, but every step racked my body so
much that I was nearly mad with pain.
I cannot remember how far it was to the
dressing station, but I remember passing
through the artillery lines, where the
guns had started again. I was put on a
table, still on the stretcher, and was
pleased to see our battalion doctor. "Well,
laddie," he said, " how are you ? " I re-
plied that I was all right, but thought it
" a bit thick " having to lie out there all
day. Then he started cutting my clothes
up, jersey and shirt as well. The dress-
ing was by no means painful, but they
left my hand untouched. I asked for
something to drink, but the doctor said
they would give me all I wanted at the
field hospital.

Then began the worst experience I
have ever been through. I was taken to
a native springless mule cart, with a few
sacks and blankets thrown in the bottom,
and helped off the stretcher. The slight-

est movement caused great pain, but
when the cart started bumping off I
was in a positive inferno. I will not
dwell on that four-mile journey from the
marsh to the riverside; suffice it to say
that what little breath I could summon
was used in praying the driver to stop
and leave me on the ground.

We came to the field hospital at last.
The natives pushed a stretcher into the
cart beside me, and one intelligent fel-
low nimbly jumped up and stood on my
smashed hand. That was the last straw.
I cursed him. When I stopped for want
of breath they attempted to lift me on
to the stretcher, but I begged them to
stop. I tried to get on by myself, but
could only manage to get my knees on
and could not lift my body. The natives
were chattering round the cart, so I
started shouting " English, English.
Fetch English," and at last a "Jock"
came up to see what was wrong. I begged
him to put his hand under my shoulder
and help me on the stretcher, and in, a
moment I was lying on my stomach — not
very comfortable on account of my la-
bored breathing, but it was a rest for
my left side. When my hand had been
cleaned and dressed I was put on a mat-
tress in a bell tent, where I tossed about
in a high fever.

In the morning I was put in a paddle-
boat, and I slept till it started in the
afternoon. We were taken ashore at Orah
that night, and there received better atr
tention. I was placed on the operating
table and the bullet located and removed.

I will not describe my stay at Orah or
the trip down the Tigris in the paddler
boat to Bussorah. My hand was a fear-
ful size and very painful. When the ship
was moored in front of Bussorah Hos-
pital I was very weak. Two orderlies
helped me on to the stretcher, and I
was carried down the gangway to the
entrance of the hospital. A Major took
particulars and consigned me to a ve-
randa ward on the second floor. And
so I was placed in one of the whitest,
cleanest, and most comfortable beds in
the world.

A Bayonet Charge in Picardy

By a British Army Captain

A racy bit of battle description, hot from the guns, as spoken by a wounded Captain-
who led one of the first rushes against the German trenches in the great British drive.

set parapet left; just a gradual slope of
muck, as though cartloads of it had been
dropped from the sky by giants — spilt
porridge. I wanted to be first out, if I
could — good effect on the men, you know
— but I couldn't trust myself in all that
muck, so I'd collared a rum-case from

's dugout, and was nursing the

blooming thing, so that when the time
came I could plant it in the mud and
get a bit of a spring from that. Glad I
did, too.

I passed the word along at a quarter
past to be ready for my whistle; but it
was all you could do to make a fellow
hear by shouting in his ear. Our heavies
were giving it lip then, I can tell you.
I was in a devil of a stew lest some of
my chaps should get over too soon. They
kept wriggling up and forward in the
mud. They were frightfully keen to get
moving. I gathered from my Sergeant
their one fear was that if we couldn't
soon get going our artillery would have
left no strafing for us to do. Little they
knew their Boche, if they thought that.

I thought I could just make out our
artillery lift, about a minute and half be-
fore the twenty-five, but I wouldn't swear
to it. On the stroke of the twenty-five I
got a good jump from my rum-box, and
fell head first into a little pool — whizz-
bang hole, I suppose; something small.
It loosened two of my front teeth pretty
much. I'd my whistle in my teeth, you
see. But I blew like blazes directly I
got my head up. Never made a sound.
Whistle full of mud. But it didn't matter
a bit. They all saw me take my dive, and
a lot were in front of me when I got go-
ing. But I overhauled 'em, and got in
front.

I believe we must have got nearly fifty
yards without a casualty. But it's hard
to say. It wasn't light, you know; just a
glimmering kind of a grayness. Not easy
to spot casualties. The row, of course,
was deafening, and we were running like

EH? Oh, just an ordinary front-
line trench, you know; rather
chipped about, of course, by the
Boche heavies, you know; but — oh, hang
it, you know what the ordinary fire
trench looks like; along the north side of
the Mametz Wood we were. What? Oh,
yes, we were packed pretty close, of
course, while we were waiting; only got
there a little before midnight. My chaps
were all in splendid heart, and keen as
mustard to get the word " Go ! " I was
lucky; met my friend , almost di-
rectly we got in.

The weather was jolly then; but there'd
been a lot of rain, and the trench was in
a beastly state. You know what it's like,
after a lot of strafing, when you get
heavy rains on the churned-up ground.
It was like porridge with syrup over it;
and we were all absolutely plastered —
hair and mustaches and everything —
before we'd been half an hour in the
place. The Boche was crumping us
pretty heavy all the time, but it didn't
really matter, because, for some reason,
he didn't seem to have got our range
just right, and nearly all his big stuff
Was landing in front or behind, and giv-
ing us very little but the mud of it.

What did worry me a bit was his ma-
chine guns. His snipers, too, seemed
fairly on the spot, though how the devil
they could be, with our artillery as busy
as it was, I can't think. But I know sev-
eral of my sentries were laid out by rifle
bullets. I particularly wanted to let the
others get a smoke when they could, see-
ing we'd be there three or four hours;
helps to keep 'em steady in the waiting,
you know; but we had to be mighty care-
ful about matches, the Boche being no
more than a hundred yards off.

Just before 3 I got my position,
right in the middle of my company. We
were going over at 3:25, you know. The
trench was deep there, with a hell of a
lot of mud and water; but there was no

1054 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

lamplighters. You remember our prac-
tice stunts at home? Short rushes, and
taking cover in folds of the ground. " Re-
member your file of direction, Sir; dress-
in' by the right," and all that. Oh, the
boys remembered it right enough. But,
good Lord, it wasn't much like Salisbury
Plain, you know. We were going hell for
leather. You think you're going strong,
an(j — Woosh! You've got your face deep
in porridge. Fallen in a shell hole. You
trip over some blame thing, and you
turn a complete somersault, and you're
on again, wondering where your second
wind is. Lord, you haven't a notion
whether you're hit or not.

I felt that smack on my left wrist,
along with a dozen other smacks of one
sort and another, but I didn't know it was
a wound for an hour or more. All you
thought about was trying to keep your
rifle muzzle up, and I guess the fellows
behind must 've thought a bit about not
stickin' us with their bayonets more'n

they could help. I was shouting ,

the local name of the regiment, you
know. The boys like it. But my Sergeant,
who was close to me, was just yelling,
"Down 'em, boys!" and "Stick 'em!
Stick 'em! " for all he was worth.

My lot were bound for the second line,
you see. My No. 12 Platoon, with thir-
teen of " D," were to look after cleaning
up the Boche first line.

There was no real parapet left in that
Boche front line. Their trench was just
a sort of gash, a ragged crack in the
porridge. Where I was, there was quite
a bit of their wire left; but, do you know,
one didn't feel it a bit. You can judge a
bit from my rags what it was like. We
went at it like fellows in a race charge
the tape; and it didn't hurt us any more.
Only thing that worried us was the por-
ridge and the holes. Your feet sinking
down make you feel you're crawling;
making no headway. I wish I could have
seen a bit better. It was all a muddy
blur to me. But I made out a line of
faces in the Boche ditch; and I know I
gave a devil of a yell as we jumped for
those faces. Lost my rifle there.

'Fraid I didn't stick my man, really,
because my bayonet struck solid earth. I
just smashed my fellow. We went down

into the muck together, and another chap
trod on my neck for a moment. Makes
you think quick, I tell you. I pulled that
chap down on top of my other Boche, and
just took one good look to make sure he
was a Boche; and then I gave him two
rounds from my revolver, with the barrel
in his face. I think I killed the under
one too, but can't be sure.

Next thing I knew we were scrambling
on to the second line. It was in the wire
of the second line that I got my knock-
out; this shoulder and some splinters in
my head. Yes; bomb. I was out of busi-
ness, then; but as the light grew I
could see my chaps having the time of
their lives inside that second line. One
of 'em hauled me in after a bit, and I got
a drink of beer in a big Boche dugout
down two separate flights of steps. My
hat! That beer was good, though it was
German. But, look here, I'm in No. .-5
train, that that chap's calling. I must
get ashore. Just want to tell you about

that dugout of 's in our own line,

you know. It was 4 o'clock in the after-
noon, and we'd got the Bazentin Wood
all right then, when my orderly, wlio
never got a scratch, was helping me
back, making for our dressing station.
We crawled into what had been a trench,
and while we were taking a breather I
sort of looked around, and made out a
bit here and a bend there. Begad, it
was the trench we started from.

Seems nothing, but you've no idea how
odd it was to me; like dropping into a bit
of England after about a century and a
half in — in some special kind of hell, you
know. Seemed so devilish odd that any
mortal thing should be the same any-
where after that day. Not that it was
the same, really. My rum case was in
splinters, sticking up out of the por-
ridge, and I found my map case there,
torn off my belt as we got over at 3:25.
" Won't be much left of that dugout," I
thought, and I got my orderly to help me
along to see. Couldn't find the blessed
thing, anyhow. Went backward and for-
ward three or four times. Then I spotted

the head of a long trench stick that

had carried, sticking out through soft
earth at the back of the trench. The
orderly worked that stick about a little,

GENERAL LETCHITSKY

Russian Whose Army Drove the Austrian* Out of Ruko
and !<; P'i«hing '>P T'-^nrd (Hr Tfrart of Galiria

GENERAL NIVELLE

French Commander in Charge of the Defense of Verdun Since the
Promotion of General Petain.

HUMAN DOCUMENTS OF THE WAR FRONTS

1055

and the earth fell away. It was just
loose, dry stuff blown in off the front
part of the roof of the dugout, and block-
ing the little entrance. Came away at
a touch, almost, and there was the little
hole you got in by. I worried through,
somehow. I was really curious to see.
If you'll believe me, the inside of that
dugout — it looked like a drawing room to
me, after the outside, you know — it was
just exactly the same as when we'd left
it the night before. There was the fine
stove we made the cafe-au-lait on, with
a half-empty box of matches balanced
on the side of it, and the last empty tin
of the coffee stuff we'd used, with the

broken-handed spoon standing up in it,

just as I'd left it; and 's notebook

lying open and face down on an air pil-
low in his bunk — most extraordinarily
homey. There I was looking at his note-
book, and his hold-all, and poor -
dead. Yes, I'd seen his body. And the
rats, too; the rats were cavorting
around on the felt of the roof, happy as
sandboys. They didn't know anything
about the Push, I suppose. By the way,
we found only dead rats in the Boche
trenches. They say it was our gas. I
don't know; but there were thousands of
dead rats there, and millions of live fleas.
Very live they were. I must get. Cheero.

Lament of the Messiah of Flanders

By Edward Stilgebauer

German Novelist

A powerful indictment of Germany's
treatment of Belgium has appeared in
the form of a story called " Love's In-
ferno," written by a German, Edward
Stilgebauer, and published in an English
translation in London. Both the book and
the author are said to be barred out of
Germany. We reproduce the passage
containing the dying lament of the
Belgian hero.

NURSE Irene was bending over an
unconscious man. He seemed
scarcely twenty-five years old,
and wore the uniform of a Belgian Lieu-
tenant. A bomb had torn away both legs.
* * * From the first moment Nurse
Irene had seen that suffering face it
had aroused her attention. Why did it
seem so strangely familiar?

Suddenly she remembered; it was
Guide's Head of Christ. * * * This won-
derful face took possession of all her
senses and thoughts; the Messiah on
the battlefield of Flanders !

She suddenly remembered that she had
read the name of the most famous man
in the whole of Belgium; that she was
about to render the last assistance to a
man who in spiritual importance was the
first poet of his nation. Josua de Kruiz
was leader of a school of young poets

who sang the incomparable beauty of
Brabant and Flanders. When the in-
vaders fell upon his almost defenseless
Fatherland he laid down the lyre to take
up the sword, and carried the flag in the
forefront of danger. He who once cele-
brated his country in song offered his
blood for her when the treacherous hyena
sprang at her unguarded throat.

His delirium had reached a climax;
recovery was no longer possible. The
poet of Flanders and Brabant was dying.
His wandering mind voiced itself in lyri-
cal words; it seemed as though the feel-
ings and thoughts of his whole life were
concentrated in these last words; Nurse
Irene listened and listened. While the
doors of the hospital were thrown open
and one wounded man after another was
hurried into the waiting vehicles, she
hung upon his lips.

Josua de Kruiz was repeating verses.
Like the sound of the far-away bells of
Vineta drowned in the ocean, his voice
chimed on, and to Irene his words seemed
to sum up in themselves the fate of
Belgium :

" Thou wert strong as a young lion,
my country; thy loins were of steel, and
thy limbs like the wood of the cedar,
and thy claws were hardened in fire.

1056 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

But in the night came the foe, my coun-
try, and destroyed the strength of thy
loins ; he broke thy claws and made them
blunt like the teeth of a saw, which the
woodmen hang on a withered branch for
rusted iron.

" Blossoms and garlands were thy fields,
my country; gems of price thy cities;
thy villages were like the roses which
the Summer weaves into the green of his
festal robe.

" But the foe came, my country ; and
on thy fields he sprinkled the blood
of thy children, so that the verdant
meadows became like the purple wine
pressed out of the ripened grape; he
burned thy cities, that they became black
like the ruins of Nineveh and fallen
Babel; he beat down thy villages so that
no stone remained on another, and they
were like a bare bush from which the
November wind has stripped the last
leaves.

"The bosoms of thy mothers and virgins,
my land, were like armed towers; they
were full of beauty and sweetness; the
mother's breast gave abundance of milk,
nourishment, life to thy sucklings.

" But the foe came, my country; he cut
off the breasts of thy mothers and maid-
ens, raising them in mockery on the
point of his lance. And the sucklings,
the hope of thy future, withered away
in hunger and thirst and shame.

" Thou hadst churches and palaces, my
country. Thy skillful men created a new
world on the cloth embroidered with
colored thoughts; thy halls were full of
the wonders of past centuries.

"But the foe came, my country; and
he tore down thy towers, and churches,
and thy palaces; he rent the tapestries
embroidered with colored thoughts.

" Thou wast robbed of thy manhood,
my country; thou hast become emascu-
lated among the lands of the earth. Oh,
my country, my tears of blood fall on
thee, for I love thee, my country.

" I love thee in the robe of shame that
thou wearest; with the crown of thorns
on thy head and the ashes on thy locks.

" Doubly and trebly do I love thee, for
thy suffering, thy pains, for thy wrongs,
which are more grievous than the wrongs
of any other land.

" Thou wast small, but thou hast become
the greatest among the small; thou art
raised to the right hand of the God of
our forefathers, to whom thou dost ap-
peal to judge between thee and thy foe,
my country.

" How fair thou wast, my country! the
bride of my youth and the wife of my
silent hope.

" Thy sons and thy daughters walked
with the wreath of flowering Spring,
the immortal crown of eternal fame on
their heads, through the streets of thy
cities on the sea.

" Thy ships brought thee garments
worked with gold from the coasts of the
Orient; pearls and emeralds from the
rivers and mountains of Ind; amber and
rich unguents from the ends of the East;
the procession of thy ships on the seas
was like the procession of the three
Kings who followed the star. Oh, my
country, wast thou not an immortal child,
joyous and glad? Laughter-like music
rang from thy flower-like bosom, and I
heard thy laughter and kept it in my
heart.

" Like a girl who adorns herself for
the dance on the day of the high festival,
thou didst bind on thy brow, radiant in
the sunlight, the blue band of the seas,
bringing blessing and refreshment.

" To thousands of strangers thou didst
offer healing and strength, and they
found rest and peace in thy arms.

" Oh, my beloved country, thrice
stricken and battered by the treacherous
foe. Faithlessness and treason and lies
he desired to stamp, like a brand, on thy
brow.

" But the crown of thorns which thou
bearest and the blood that drips on thy
forehead efface the brand.

" The stamp of disgrace marks the
brow of thy enemies ; they shall go about
branded amongst all the nations of this
earth for ever.

" ' For this shall be their punishment,'
says the Lord thy God. ' I will mark
them with the mark of Cain, so that they
shall be known among all men, and all
men shall turn from them. They shall
be strangers on the earth wherever they
go, and their track shall be avoided
and accursed/ "

Britain's Tribute to Belgium

By Herbert H. Ascjuith

Prime Minister

Belgian exiles in London on July 21 celebrated the eighty-fifth anniversary of their
country's independence. A Te Deum was sung at Westminster Cathedral in tie mofning, and
m the afternoon a great gathering filled Albert Hall. The Belgian Minister presided and
speaking in French, told again the story of the nation's heroism. Despite invasion, massacre
fire, intrigue, and temptation, Belgians had not bowed their heads before the enemy Once
more they repeated the solemn oath of their national hymn, prophetically written by Charles
Rogier in 1830, a stanza of which appears below. Such was the occasion on which Mr
Asquith delivered this brief address.

O Belgique, O mere cherie,

A toi nos coeurs, a toi nos bras,

A toi noire sang, O Patrie :
Nous le jurons, oui, tu vivras!

IT is eighty-five years today since
Prince Leopold ascended the throne
of the new kingdom of Belgium, and
four months later the neutrality of
that kingdom was guaranteed by the
Treaty of London, to which Austria and
Prussia, with Russia and Great Britain,
were parties. For more than eighty
years Belgium lived at peace under the
aegis of that international guarantee,
developing her resources with almost un-
paralleled industry and ingenuity, and
contributing her full share to the com-
mon stock of European culture. Two
years ago she was subjected to one of
those testing ordeals which try and prove
the stuff of which nations are made. The
peace of Europe was wantonly broken,
and Belgium was asked to become the
stepping-stone and therefore the ac-
complice of the aggressor. With a de-
cisiveness and an enthusiasm which
blotted out all party differences and
fused in a moment the whole nation into
perfect unity, she declined the insulting
offer and announced that if need be she
would support her refusal by force. A
more heroic resolve has never been taken
, by a small State since in the ancient
world Athens and Sparta met the chal-
lenge of Persia and the East.

The odds at the outset were tremen-
dous, for let it be always remembered, let
us never forget, that the invasion of Bel-
gium by Germany was not merely — I
might almost say not mainly — a military
campaign. The facts have been laid bare

after exhaustive and impartial inquiry,
and we now know that the military
operations of Germany were deliberately
supported by and in some cases sub-
ordinated to organized butchery and pil-
lage of the civil population, to carefully
planned massacres of men, women, and
children, the sacking of industrious
towns, the desecration and the wanton
destruction of the most precious monu-
ments of the piety and the artistic genius
of the past. This infamous story, which
takes us back to the spirit and the
methods of the Thirty Years' War, will
never be blotted from the memory of Bel-
gium or from the escutcheon of Germany.
The Belgian Army resisted inch by
inch the advance of overwhelming force
with tenacity, with endurance, and with
brilliant courage, for which, let me say,
the two great western allies owe them an
immeasurable debt of gratitude. With
its heroic King still at its head, that
army, after the lapse of nearly two years,
is still in Belgium, and neither the King
nor his gallant troops have quailed. They
form an important link in the allied lines
which hold Germany in check, well found
in men and in munitions, and well able to
cope with all the latest exigencies of
modern war.

But I should like to pass for a moment
from the Belgian Army to point out that
not less admirable has been the spirit
which continues to be shown by the civil
population at home. Their patriotism
has yielded neither to cajolery nor coer-
cion, though it has been subjected to a
full measure of both. As lately as last
May — and I want, if I can, to bring this
fact home to the knowledge of the whole

1058 , CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

civilized world — the German Governor
General issued a new decree to give in-
creased stringency to the law against
Belgian workmen who refused to work
for their oppressors.

There can be no doubt of the object. It
is to enable the German invaders to
requisition Belgian labor for their own
military needs. This new decree imposes
heavier penalties on those who refuse,
and it contains further the remarkable
provision which I am about to read and
which I hope will be recorded everywhere
— " Instead of having recourse to penal
prosecutions, the Governors and military
commandants may order that recalcitrant
workmen shall be led by force to the
places where they are to work." In
other words, they are to be treated as
slaves. This is the climax of a policy
which has already resorted without .suc-
cess to starvation and deportation to sub-
due the untamable spirit of these brave
men who refuse to become accomplices
in the spoliation and oppression of their
native land.

We here in Great Britain are taking
note of these things. We do not mean
to forget them; we intend to exact repa-
ration for them ; and in the meanwhile the
spectacle of the sufferings and sacrifice
of these patient and stubborn victims of
inhumanity and tyranny is exciting the
sympathy not only of the Allies, but of
the whole neutral world.

Your Excellency, in the name of the
British people I beg to send through you
a message on this memorable anniver-
sary. Tell your compatriots that their
example has inspired and stimulated the
allied nations and armies. Tell them that
we are watching their suffering with
sympathy and their patience and courage
with heartfelt admiration. Tell them
finally that when the hour of deliverance
comes, and come it will before long,
it will be to us here in Great Britain a
proud and ennobling memory that we
have had our share in restoring to them
the freedom and independence to which
no nation in the history of the world has
ever shown a more indisputable title.

An Utterance That Caused the Suppression of a Berlin

Newspaper

The article which caused the suppression of the Berlin Tageblatt on Aug. 1
is supposed to be one contributed by Maximilian Harden of Die Zukunft, in
which this passage occurred:

Declarations that this war was an inevitable war, that Germany was forced
into it all unprepared and against her will cannot be supported except by ex-
tremist partisans. Undoubtedly the conflict could have been avoided had the
Government desired to avoid it.

Undoubtedly, too, it would have been avoided had the Reichstag been taken
into the confidence of our rulers instead of being presented merely with a recital
of actions taken independently of it. Such action was taken in the matter of the
proposals for a conference on the Austro-Serbian situation that Sir Edward Grey
made. They were rejected before the Reichstag had ever heard them.

The Imperial Chancellor's statement in regard to the regrettable necessity of
violating the neutrality of Belgium was. also made after the event. There are
among us many indeed who maintain that the Reichstag should have been con-
sulted before issuing the declaration of war. If that was impracticable, at least
advice should have been taken from men like Prince von Biilow, whose long ex-
perience and profound acquaintance with the ways of diplomacy might perhaps
have discovered a way to stop the war chariot from dashing us into the abyss.

The Germans and Science

By Paul Deschanel

Member of the French Academy and former President of the Chamber of Deputies

Translated for CURRENT HISTORY from the preface of " Les Allemands et la Science,"
a new volume by Gabriel Petit and Maurice Leudet.

WHEN the learned societies of
France replied last year to
the manifesto of the German
intellectuals, Professor Gabriel
Petit and M. Maurice Leudet began an in-
quiry among our most eminent scholars
regarding the part that Germany has
played in the development of the sciences.
Their conclusion is that Germany is far
from possessing the scientific superiority
which she attributes to herself.

With certain exceptions the Germans
have especially excelled in putting into
use discoveries made by others. As Sir
William Ramsay has said : " The greatest
works of scientific thought are not due to
scholars of the Teutonic race; even the
precocious applications of science do not
come from them."

On Nov. 3, 1914, the Academy of
Sciences, associating itself with the pro-
tests of the other academies of the Insti-
tute of France, expressed itself thus :

" The Academy must recall attention to
the fact that the Latin and Anglo-Saxon
civilizations are the ones that have, in
the last three centuries, produced most
of the great discoveries in the mathemat-
ical, physical, and natural sciences, be-
sides being the authors of the chief in-
ventions of the nineteenth century. We
protest, therefore, against the attempt to
tie the intellectual future of Europe to
the future of German science; against
the assertion that the safety of European
civilization depends upon the victory of
German militarism, the Siamese twin of
German Kultur."

Upon this declaration the following
pages are a stirring commentary.

In the Teutonic conception, science, his-
tory, philosophy, religion, are national
forces, like the army, diplomacy, credit.
From this point of view science is no
longer a universal and human thing, it
belongs primarily to the service of the

State. As Germany assumes to dominate
the other nations, " German science "
ought to be superior to that of other peo-
ples. In the words of Fustel de Coul-
anges, "the interest of Germany is the
ultimate aim of these indefatigable seek-
ers."

For us Frenchmen it is not a matter of
minimizing Germany's share, it is a mat-
ter of not allowing our own to be taken.
France should no longer be a dupe of her
own disinterested spirit. To put the case
to a test, to perform a labor of justice,
and not only of patriotism—this was the
object sought to be attained by Messrs.
Petit and Leudetv In giving publicity to
the words of more than twenty French
scientists, including those most highly
qualified, it is not only France that they
mean to serve, but truth. France has no
need of feints and artifices to mark her
place.

To appreciate the part played by each
nation we must distinguish between in-
vention, genius, and the works that fol-
low discovery: the application of it, or
the scholastic, industrial, and commercial
organization of the idea, or, again,
publicity, propaganda.

It is in application and organization
that Germany excels; it is in these that
we should profit from her lessons and
perfect our methods. But creation be-
longs above all to France; in the seven-
teenth century, Descartes and Pascal; in
the eighteenth, Lavoisier, and in the
nineteenth, Pasteur.

In 1907 M. G. Darboux, permanent
Secretary of the Academy of Sciences,
drew the following picture of the scien-
tific achievement of France in the first
half of the nineteenth century:

" If there should appear some day a
man who desires to write the complete
history of our society, he will pause with
patriotic joy over the period covering the

1060 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

first half of the nineteenth century. The
academy then gathered into its fold
along with the scholars created by the
slow labors of the monarchy all those
who had been brought into prominence
by the fruitful agitations of the Revo-
lution and of the empire: Lagrange,
Laplace, Monge, Legendre, Cauchy,
Poissot, Sturm, in mathematics; Dupin,
de Prony, Poncelet, Gambier, Seguier, in
mechanics; Messier, Arago, Bouvard,
Lalande, Delambre, in astronomy;
Buache, Beautemps-Beaupre, de Frey-
cinet, in geography; Biot, Ampere, Four-
ier, Poisson, Malus, Fresnel, Becquerel,
Regnault, in physics; Berthollet, Gay-
Lussac, Vauquelin, Dulong, Dumas, Bous-
singault, Proust, Chevreul, Thenard,
Balard, in chemistry; Haiiy, Brongniart,
Ramon, in mineralogy; Cuvier, de Jus-
sieu, Lamarck, Mirbel Lacepede, Geoff-
roy Saint-Hilaire, Milne-Edwards, in
natural history; Larrey, Portal, Dupuy-
tren, Pinel, Corvisart, Flourens, Magen-
die, Pelletain, in medicine and surgery,
and as many more who will be a lasting
honor to the French name."

In short, at no moment has any other
nation presented to the world so many
creators. Germany at that time had only
one great name to point to — that of
Gauss, the mathematician and astrono-
mer of Gottingen. France has never de-
nied that he was the equal of the most
illustrious.

The savants cited by M. Darboux have
opened up new paths in all domains.
Cauchy transformed the methods of
mathematical analysis. General Poncelet
gave an impetus to geometry whose ef-
fects are still felt today. Ampere created
electrodynamics and prepared the way
for the discovery of telegraphy by elec-
tric wires. Fourier, celebrated for his
theory of heat, was the true creator of
mathematical physics, which came into
being through the works of Lagrange and
Laplace. Berthollet and Gay-Lussac
were, after Lavoisier, the great lawgivers
of chemistry. Haiiy founded mineralogy.
Lamarck, Cuvier, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire,
from different points of view, laid the
foundations of zoological philosophy.
From their time the whole world bowed
before the superiority of French science.

All nations came to our school. In Eng-
land, in Germany, men studied our dis-
coveries, applied them, and tried to follow
up and perfect them. The circle of scien-
tific studies was broadening every day.

But in France our scientists also found
worthy minds to follow up their discover-
ies. In the domain of mathematics the
name of Henri Poincare shines with espe-
cial brilliance. Gabriel Lame, one of the
ablest geometricians, followed up the
labors of Fourier; Galois, though he died
early, immortalized himself by his theory
of groups; Charles Hermite won a place
in the first rank of theoretical mathe-
matics and abstruse analysis; Michel
Chasles completed the discoveries of Pon-
celet and published an incomparable his-
tory of the progress and development of
geometry; Joseph Liouville, a man of en-
cyclopedic mind, will live especially
through his theorems regarding the the-
ory of functions ; Joseph Bertrand, a pre-
cocious inventor, published the finest
studies on the calculation of probabilities
and on mathematical physics; Ossian
Bonnet developed infinitesimal geometry;
Georges Halphen, the glorious soldier of
1870, left us a great treatise on elliptical
functions and precious original memoirs.

In physics Fresnel created the wave
theory of light; Sadi Carnot, whose
stroke of genius was developed later by
the Germans Robermayer and Clausius,
laid the foundations of the doctrine of
energy by making known the principle
with which physicians have honored his
name; Regnault by his memorable expe-
riences furnished engineers as well as
theoretical investigators with the most
valuable data; Amagat, who died in 1914,
continued this work. If Rontgen made
himself illustrious by his discovery of the
X-rays, what progress does radioactive
science not owe to Becquerel, Curie, and
their emulators?

Hertz discovered the waves that bear
his name, but the directing ideas had
been given by an English genius, Maxwell.
To Branly and to the Italian Marconi be-
longs the honor of wireless telegraphy.
The first idea of the telephone came from
the Frenchman Bourseul.

Foucault, Fizeau, Cornu discovered new
methods of measuring the speed of light;

THE GERMANS AND SCIENCE

1001

photography is due to Daguerre, pho-
tography in colors to Lippmann.

In mechanics it is to Seguin's invention
of the tubular boiler that we owe the
great development of railways. To
Dupuy de Lome belongs the idea of the
armored cruiser. It was Marcel Deprez
who first solved the problem of trans-
porting power to distant points. The
motor run by explosions is a discovery
of our engineers; what the automobile
owes to Forest and Levassor is already
known.

After the labors of Meusnier and
Charles aeronautics long remained an
essentially French science. The first
dirigibles were made by Dupuy de Lome
and Colonel Renard. In 1852 H. Giffard
constructed a gas balloon equipped with
a screw and rudder. It was two French-
men, Penaud in 1871 and Tatin in 1879,
who demonstrated by experience the
possibility of mechanical flight. Marey,
by studying the flight of birds, and
Renard, by his mathematical studies,
gave us the theory of aviation. Ader
and Santos-Dumont, in advance of the
Wright brothers, built rudimentary and
imperfect aeroplanes which were yet able
to remain some moments in the air.
Farman, in 1908, wrote the first page in
the golden book of aviation.

If Germany gave the world Bessel,
Fraunhofer, and Kirchhoff, the French-
man Le Verrier, by his discovery of Nep-
tune and his works on celestial me-
chanics, placed himself in the first rank
of modern astronomers. Janssen, who
created the spectroscope, should be
ranked with the creators of physical as-
tronomy. The renown of General Perrier,
who has been called the restorer of
French geodesy, is universal. Admiral
Mouchez directed the international proj-
ect of the chart of the heavens. Bouquet
de la Grye and d'Abbadie took an im-
portant part in observing the two transits
of Venus. Tisserand continued the work
of Laplace by publishing an admirable
treatise on celestial mechanics. The new
measure of the arc of Quito was made
under the direction of the Academy of
Sciences by the officers of our geodetic
service. The great works of Henri Poin-
care have furnished the latest contri-

butions to the essential theories of math-
ematical astronomy, to the problem of
the three bodies, and to the study of the
configuration of celestial bodies.

In geography and navigation the
French genius has shone with an incom-
parable brilliancy. Certain names awaken
bright memories: Lesseps, Grandidier,
Brazza, Marchand.

In the domain of the physical sciences
the part taken by France is no less
glorious or fruitful. J. B. Dumas, Lau-
rent, Gerhardt, Adolphe Wurtz discov-
ered the fundamental laws of organic
chemistry. The wonderful labors of
Berthelot in synthetic chemistry effaced
every boundary line between mineral and
organic chemistry, establishing that
unity which had so long been denied.
His studies in thermal chemistry en-
abled him to penetrate the constitution
of explosive substances, the theory of
which he restored. He it was who first
employed electrical energy in organic
chemistry to combine the elements.

Deville gave to industry a new metal,
aluminium. To him and his students is
due the beautiful and fruitful theory of
dissociation, which has become the first
chapter in physical chemistry. H. Mois-
san, who isolated flourine, has given to
the scientific world all his labors for
the creation of an electrical furnace.

How can we forget that Pasteur was
first of all a chemist? It was his
studies in crystallography that led him
to take up the subject of fermentations;
and his researches in fermentation led
him on to those studies of biological
chemistry and the microbe theory which
have transformed medicine and surgery.
Fifteen years later Robert Koch merely
borrowed, in the botanical realm, his
method of cultures on gelatine. It is
well known that the isolation of the
tubercular bacillus, whose existence
Villemin affirmed as far back as 1865,
was realized by the German bacteriolo-
gist.

Germany also has a right to be proud
of her chemists, Liebig, Bunsen, Hoff-
mann, Kekule. Applied and industrial
chemistry has been one of the sources
of her prodigious economic development.
Her spirit of perseverance and logic has

1062 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

given her free range in this vast do-
main; but only rarely has she possessed
what is the chief characteristic of French
genius — intuition, the forerunner of in-
vention.

To France botanical science owes Bor-
net, the distinguished phytologist; Zeiller
and Renaut, the founders of paleobotany;
van Tieghem, whose works have brought
him a renown which his modesty never
sought.

In mineralogy Hauy found disciples in
our own country who were his equals.
Delafosse, Bravais, Pasteur established
molecular theories; optical properties
were studied especially by Des Cloizeaux,
de Senarmont, Mallard; Fouque and Mi-
chel Levy established a new science, pe-
trography; we owe to Henri Sainte-
Claire Deville, to Daubree, to Friedel, to
Hautefeuille reproductions by synthesis
of minerals found in nature; Albert Gau-
dry and his pupils made the most pre-
cious contribution to the study of fossil
animals; Elie de Beaumont will go into
history as one of the greatest geologists
of modern times; Hebert, Gosselet, and
Marcel Bertrand have carried forward
our knowledge of the structure of our
planet; the works of Charles Sainte-
Claire Deville and of Fouque on volca-
noes are authorities.

Zoological science finds eminent repre-
sentatives in France: De Quatrefages,
Alphonse Milne-Edwards, who followed
up the labors of his father; de Lacaze-
Duthiers, creator of the laboratories of
maritime zoology; Alfred Giard, author
of beautiful studies in zoological philos-
phy, and histologists of distinction,
founders of schools, Robin and Ranvier.

In medicine and surgery French sa-
vants stand in the first rank. Bichat,
creator of general anatomy; Laennec,
who invented ausculation; Bretonneau,
who has been called the French Syden-
ham; Villemin, who proved that tubercu-
losis was contagious; Claude Bernard, of
whom it was said that he was " physiol-
ogy itself"; Brown-Sequard, who applied
the doctrine of internal secretions to the
art of healing; Paul Bert, author of
many beautiful experimental researches
in atmospheric pressure and mountain
fever; Charcot, founder of the Salpe-

triere School; Oilier, the great Lyons
surgeon; Marey, who was led by his
study of the movements of animals to the
invention of the cinematograph; Chau-
veau, the contemporary and rival of Pas-
teur; Laveran, who first analyzed the
origin and nature of swamp fevers and
diseases due to blood parasites; Charles
Richet, who introduced into medicine two
fundamental theories, serotherapy and,
more recently, anaphylaxis; Duclaux, Dr.
Roux, Nocard, worthy students of the
great Pasteur, to whom the world owes
the celebrated establishment in the Rue
Dutot — and with them the Russian,
Metchnikoff, who discovered phagocytose
— are masters before whom Germany her-
self is compelled to bow.

Finally, if one considers the Institute
of France at the present moment, can
Germany offer the equivalent of the
mathematical section of our Academy of
Sciences: Jordan, Darboux, Emile Picard,
Appell, Painleve, Humbert, Hadamard?
And if we did not fear to weary our
readers by too long an enumeration, could
we not, by examining the other sections
of the same academy, extend this com-
parison ?

It will be noted that France, while hold-
ing an eminent place in the domain of
science in bygone times, has not degener-
ated. Today, as yesterday, it is on
French soil that the greatest creative
achievements find birth. But, because
France has the spirit of justice, she
knows how to give credit to men of other
lands who have enriched universal
science. The English have every right
to glory in the names of Dalton, Darwin,
Sylvester, Cayley, Maxwell, Lord Kel-
vin, Faraday, Lord Lister, Lord Raleigh,
Sir William Ramsay, Sir Patrick Man-
son, and many other great innovators
whose ideas have scattered their seeds
across the world. The Italians, to speak
only of physicians and chemists, can be
proud of Avogadro, Malaguti, Sobrero,
Bertagnini, Cannizaro. And as to Ger-
many, we are not ignorant of what
science owes, in mathematics, to Jacobi;
in physics, to Ohm, in chemistry, to Lie-
big, Wohler, Bunsen, and Fischer; in
biology, to Jean Muller, to Schwann, to
Helmholtz, to Rodolphe Virchow, to Ehr-

THE GERMANS AND SCIENCE

iocs

lich, to Behring. But what we deny is
the hegemony of German science. We
hold for ourselves the honor of having
been the leaders, the initiators, in the
scientific domain, as in so many others,
and the nations in whom a spirit of jus-
tice survives will recall the services we
have rendered.

Ten years ago the Royal Society of
London had the idea of appealing to all
countries for the publication of an an-
nual catalogue containing only the titles
of the theatises in pure science published
in the whole world. At present this
catalogue consists each year of sixteen
or seventeen compact volumes. The fact
illustrates the intense development of
scientific work, day by day, everywhere.
Now the Germans, affecting no longer to
use the French language, have urged
every scientist to write in his own idiom,
so that, to keep informed, one would
have to know ten languages.

In order that no part of this labor
should be lost, and that it should be at
the service of all, a certain co-ordina-
tion is necessary. The Germans have
long understood this: they wished to
take the direction of the movement and
to bring under subjection any science
that was not born among them.

The German, in fact, is both disci-
plined and meticulous; he does not com-
prehend that the same thing can be
done in two different ways; he does not
see that, if co-ordination is good, lib-
erty left in some degree to the choice of
the worker vivifies and enriches the

product. That is why the German is so
proud; why, when he has caught up and
triturated with his own methods the
rich ideas which come to him from else-
where, he imagines that these ideas are
his, that it is he who has conceived
them.

A word in the German language ex-
presses this tendency exactly — the verb
" bearbeiten," to work over. Frequently
the German works things over. He does
not admit that there can be found under
the heavens any methods of work dif-
ferent from his own.

We think, on the contrary, that there
is no need to do violence to anybody. In
the scientific domain, as in others, each
country should be guided by its own
genius. It should apply itself to de-
veloping its own natural gifts in such
a way as to form a harmonious whole,
and different, in certain respects, from
that of its neighbor. An orchestra is
not made up of one kind of instruments,
and, though concord is necessary, each
instrument must yet preserve its own
particular timbre and sonority.

Germany undertook to direct the con-
cert, and even to stifle the other voices.
Too long, among us, has the caprice of
fashion, the superstition of force,
served her ambitious designs. Our coun-
try ought to be grateful to the authors
of this book for having established, not a
truth at the service of the State, but the
truth. An impartial judgment is the
most beautiful homage that one can pay
to the French genius.

England and Polish Relief

By Adolf von Batocki

Germany's Food Dictator

Great Britain, through Viscount Grey,
has refused to allow American relief or-
ganizations to provision Poland unless
Germany will agree to leave the new
crops wholly for the Polish civilian popu-
lation, and to give the American relief
officials full control of the distribution
of food. The following reply of Ger-
many's food dictator was communicated
through a staff correspondent of THE
NEW YORK TIMES:

I CONSIDER Viscount Grey's arro-
gant and absurdly impossible terms
dictated to Germany on which
England would permit America to
send foodstuffs into Poland not only a
transparent and hypocritical play to the
neutral gallery, but a subtle, cunning,
and diabolical plot to draw Poland, Bel-
gium, and Northern France into the
theatre of the hunger war waged against
humanity.

I am personally intensely interested in
Viscount Grey's reported reply to Amer-
ica's appeal, and particularly in his threat
that England would exact retribution and
inflict punishment for every civilian life
lost as a result of insufficient food in
the territories occupied by the armies of
the Central Powers. -I am indirectly re-
sponsible for the feeding of Poland, be-
cause when foodstuffs are sent to the
point of famine there I must give of our
stocks in Germany, both for the army
and for the civilian population. Thus
there is no sugar in Courland, no sugar
in Poland, or occupied Russia, for the re-
treating Russians destroyed all the beet-
sugar factories, and so, although sugar
is short in Germany, I must apportion
small quantities to these occupied terri-
tories.

I am also intensely interested in the
possibility of the neutral commission's
ceasing its humanitarian work in France
and Belgium, because in that case I would
become responsible for feeding them. I
must know what is needed in all the occu-

pied territories outside of Germany, too.
I am also indirectly in touch with Aus-
tria, as well as directly with Serbia and
Turkey.

Viscount Grey's threat of retribution
and punishment frightens me, but fortu-
nately there is an army between him and
me. But, first, nobody will starve, and,
secondly, Grey will not catch me. If
America's humanitarian desire to aid in
feeding Poland is balked and frustrated
by the opposition of England, not one
person will die of hunger, although the
food rations will be short.

Although he threatens me with death if
a single individual starves to death in the
occupied territories, I nevertheless would
be very happy to invite Viscount Grey
to visit Germany, Poland, Belgium, and
Northern France and personally convince
himself of the conditions and the work
we are doing at home and in the oc-
cupied territories, and I should also be
pleased to show him what the Russians
did to Poland. I would be happy to have
him bring along some of his poor relations
among the allied statesmen, and would
gladly explain to him my whole economic
system, and would even promise to go to
considerable trouble to get him safe con-
duct. Then Viscount Grey could personally
convince himself that England cannot
starve Germany, nor Poland, nor Bel-
gium, nor Northern France either. It
might be a great step toward peace if the
legend about starving out Germany were
thus blasted.

I personally feel that it is unjust to
treat Belgium better than Poland. Either
give something to both or give nothing,
is my attitude.

I am no professional politician, and
I speak thus purely as my personal opin-
ion from my economic viewpoint. What
our statesmen will do in the matter of
Grey's food ultimatum and how they will
do it, is none of my business. But if our

ENGLAND AND POLISH RELIEF

1065

statesmen say, " break with England on
this impossible proposal," then it at once
becomes very much my business. The
whole responsibility will fall on me. I
am not afraid of this responsibility. I
shall have to care for everything in the
food line in the occupied territories, and I
will make it go, too. I shall treat Poland,
Belgium, Northern France, and Germany
as one economic and organic whole for
the distribution of the necessaries of life.
It will be hard on the Belgians, but better
for the Poles and the Jews.

Belgium will get a little less and Poland
a little more, but, all the same, nobody
will hunger. There will be an equal dis-
tribution of the absolute necessaries.
Both in Poland and Belgium all will re-
ceive enough bread, potatoes, and salt,
also some sugar, very little meat, also
very little fat, and fish not at all. Natu-
rally, they will get no coffee, tea, or
spices.

We must have complete control of the
railways at all times. Where there are
so few of them we cannot have outsiders
meddling with the military railways. Un-
der Grey's terms, no control over the rail-
roads would be possible. It would simply
lead to continuous friction with the neu-
tral commissions in the matter of food
transfers. Food shipments and distribu-
tion as between the army and the native
population cannot be kept separate. As
a practical example, Warsaw may have to
give potatoes to the army, and we in
turn may send potatoes to Warsaw. Fur-
thermore, in the agricultural districts of
Poland the Russians in retreating took
away many of the inhabitants, as well as
their horses. They destroyed the agri-
cultural implements and machinery and
burned down the barns and other farm
buildings. As a result the German Army
had to pitch in and help till the fields.

The German Army plowed and planted
several millions of acres in Poland. It
will now help in the harvest, and must
further help in the farming in the future.
The inhabitants alone cannot do it, be-
cause the larger part of their horses,
tools, and buildings are gone and the
greatest part of the seed had to be sent
from Germany. There also are whole re-
gions where there are practically no

farming inhabitants left, notably in the
Baltic provinces. In Poland there are
none at all immediately behind the front,
so that the German Army has had and
will continue to have to cultivate the land
right up to the front.

Belgium and occupied France have un-
til now been excluded from England's
hunger war. The English have permitted
foodstuffs to be brought into these terri-
tories under control of a neutral commis-
sion, and these were distributed as extra
rations, in addition to the foods produced
in the country. As a result, food condi-
tions in those occupied territories became
in many respects better than in Germany.
Although from the German viewpoint
this form of regulation gives rise to com-
plaint, we* nevertheless permitted it, in
order to make the lot of the native Bel-
gian and Northern French populations as
pleasant as possible. In addition, our au-
thorities, through the careful and thor-
ough stimulation of agriculture in the
territories occupied in the west, have as-
sured to these territories the greatest
possible food supply out of the present
harvest, now beginning. And while Ger-
many's stocks of cattle became depleted
as a result of the shortage of fodder,
necessitating a limit to the consumption
of meat on the part of the German popu-
lation, cattle stocks in the occupied terri-
tories in the west have developed favor-
ably, even better than in peace times, and
the Belgian meadows today are richer in
cattle than ever before.

Much more hateful and ruthless has
been Russia's attitude toward the Poles,
Lithuanians, Jews, and other inhabitants
of the vast Russian territory occupied by
the German troops. This territory is so
great and fruitful that the 1915 harvest
would have sufficed adequately to feed
the native population if the Russians be-
fore their flight had not destroyed as
much as possible of the live stock and
supplies, and even the standing harvest.
Through their gruesome and senseless
devastation of countless farmhouses and
other buildings they condemned the un-
fortunate inhabitants to spend the Winter
huddled together in the poorest shelters,
to build which our troops aided the popu-
lation as much as possible. After the oc-

1066

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

cupation of this territory everything
was done on our part to save that part
of the harvest that had not been de-
stroyed, and so to divide the food supplies
that even in the large cities a famine was
avoided.

The armies in the east were fed as far
as possible from Germany in order to
leave as much foodstuff as possible to
the natives. Despite all this the situ-
ation was extremely hard for the poor
population in many parts of the occupied
territory, particularly in Warsaw, Lodz,
and similar cities until the present har-
vest began. Naturally our authorities
could not do England the favor of letting
the inhabitants of Germany starve in
order to send foodstuffs from Germany
to the population of occupied territory
to replace what the Russians had pur-
posely destroyed.

A year ago the cries of the West Rus-
sian population were directed toward
America and all neutral States. The de-
sire to create in Poland as in Belgium
an international relief work, has been
shattered against the opposition of Eng-

land. England would rather see Polish
women and children starve than run the
risk of having anything whatever reach
the German population from Poland.
England, therefore, procrastinated, de-
layed negotiations, and set up conditions
which for military reasons were im-
possible of acceptance by Germany. The
consequences, despite all the care of the
German authorities, have had to be borne
by the women and children of West
Russia. But there was one thing that
our authorities could at least take care
of; namely, that this year's harvest in
West Russia was prepared for in the best
possible way. This could not be achieved
entirely without sacrifices on the part of
the German people, for large quantities
of seed had to be exported from Germany
into the districts devastated by the Rus-
sians. This sacrifice has had its result.
As in Germany and the territories in the
west a very good harvest stands on the
fields of this vast region of Poland, Liv-
land, and Courland. In many cases the
crop is better than ever was the case un-
der Russian Government.

Peace Appeal of the German National Committee

The formal appeal of the German National Committee, which has been
formed to procure an " honorable peace," is signed, among others, by Professor
Harnack, the great theologian, and begins:

" The German National Committee wishes to unite independent -and patriotic
men belonging to the various parties who take the standpoint that, while no
timidity should hamper the future safety of the empire, no frivolous covetous-
ness should endanger that safety now or in the future. This can only be at-
tained by a peace that resolutely avoids the unwillingness to fight of the
pacifists at any price and the insatiability which is displayed in the manifestos
of the Pan-German League. The Imperial Chancellor in March, 1916, in a
speech on which Field Marshal von Hindenburg congratulated him, gave the
formula for this peace, namely, the extension of our frontiers in the east and
real guarantees in the west, without both of which there can be no peace and
no surrender of the occupied territories."

The appeal adds that the task of the committee " must be to procure with
similarly disposed people a uniform feeling as the basis for a German peace."
It presses for freedom to discuss peace, " which has hitherto been refused by
the Government." -

The Allies of the Future

By Professor Hugo Miinsterberg

Of Harvard University

AiTER the war the Russian and the
British world empires will and
must be the central energies of
two diverging combinations, and
Germany, whatever the peace may bring,
will be the one European power which
can tip the scale for either on the world
balance. Many in Germany would quick-
ly decide in favor of
an alliance with Rus-
sia. Austria, Tur-
k e y , and Japan
would join it heartily
and other nations
would lean toward
it. It would be a
tremendous alliance
— and yet it would
bring incalculable
harm. One effect
would be sure — it
would lead to a war
with England after
a few short years.
Russia, with Japan,
Germany, Austria,
and Turkey com-
bined, would feel
strong enough for
the final blow of the
bear's paw at India
and Egypt. Revenge
on England would be the German motive
for this unnatural alliance, and the war
cry of revenge would stir all the nations
which have winced under England's
grasp.

This would be really the superwar, and
the struggle of today would appear a
mere prelude. The world would be at
stake. Europe would be devastated, for
the first time Asia would tremble, and
America would be drenched with blood.
The peace after this war would be only
a signal for a new grouping which would
raise the spectre of a new and more hor-
rible struggle to terrorize the earth. The
German-Russian-Japanese alliance would
be a league to enforce war; but we want

peace, and every effort ought to be bent
to avert such a gruesome future.

Only one way remains open, the way
in the opposite direction. Germany must
join not Russia, but England. Moreover,
as Japan has definitely allied itself with
Russia for the Asiatic Monroe Doctrine,
and as the two Asiatic powers would
menace America's
position in the Pa-
cific, the United
States cannot remain
isolated. But every
danger for its world
commerce is removed
if America joins the
British - German al-
liance. The English
Navy, the German
Army, the American
wealth, nay, the
English diplomacy,
the German thor-
oughness, and the
American optimism
and dash, form an
alliance which is in-
vincible. It is the
one league in the
world the mere ex-
istence of which
would guarantee the
peace of the next generation.

France and Austria, Italy and Sweden,
Holland and Spain, Brazil and Argen-
tina, would naturally cluster about this
massive union of the big three. It
would be America and Central Western
Europe on one side, Asia and Eastern
Europe on the other; but such a partition
of the world would not even suggest a
contest of arms, as Russia could not dare
to attack India and Germany at the same
time. It would be truly a world division
with a historic allotment of peaceful
tasks. If America, Great Britain, and
Germany frankly and heartily decide to
stand together, the war of today may
be the last great war for a century.

1068 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Obstacles surely crowd this way, but
is it not worth every effort to remove
the hindrances if it is clear that every
other way leads only to abysses? Amer-
ica felt strong in its traditional policy
of avoiding alliances with the distant
European nations, but in this age of the
storage battery and the wireless those
European countries are no longer distant.
They have become near neighbors, and
the politics of the United States is
firmly intertwined with their fate.

But it appears useless to discuss the
small serious arguments against such a
union, as one opposing power seems
greater than arguments — the hate. The
sowers of hate have gone up and down
through the three lands and the seed
has grown. Will not this hate strike out
every line of a possible treaty? No, and
a hundred times no, because British and
Germans and Americans are not Sicilians
and Corsicans who swear vendetta. Teu-
tons can hate, but they hate nothing
worse than hatred. It is tolerated as
long as it serves its purpose of stirring
the soul for the passionate deed, but
when the smoke of the guns has been
dispersed by the wind the hatred will
have cleared away too. Among the many
feelings in which these three noble
peoples will find their union there will
surely be the common feeling of shame
at the absurd extent of their loathing.

The sober hours will come and the
necessary illusions will lose their in-
fluence. Germans, British, and Ameri-
cans alike will see that they operated
with too simple psychology, simple as
that of the moving-picture dramas where
no complex mental states are allowed
and every character is angel or villain
and must shout yes or no. It is not true
that the responsible men of any nation
wanted war. They all sincerely wished
to avoid it, while they all saw its un-
avoidable coming. They really did not
want it, and yet subconsciously they all
wanted it. Even when the furies of war
had swept through the land no nation
planned an immoral deed. It is true in
Belgium and Greece, in Persia and Spain,
in China and Africa, and where not,
treaties were ignored in this war; but
has not the Supreme Court of the United

States for all time proclaimed " that cir-
cumstances may arise which would not
only justify the Government in disre-
gard of their stipulations, but demand
in the interests of the country that it
should do so? Unexpected events may
call for a change in the policy of the
country." It stamps it as the American
idea of international law " that, while
it would always be a matter of the utmost
gravity and delicacy to refuse to execute
a treaty, the power to do so was the
prerogative of which no nation could be
deprived without deeply affecting its in-
dependence." Many mistakes have been
made. German statesmen regret sin-
cerely the German ones; no doubt the
British "feel the same about the British
ones. No one can wonder that in the
heat of the struggle those blunders,
when they did harm, were denounced as
moral wrongs, that every unintentional
homicide was branded as murder and
every munition sale was abused as
hypocrisy and violation of neutrality.
But can this temper last?

Are we not anyhow too much under the
suggestion of the impudent headlines?
However much the press, the priests, and,
alas! the professors have sinned in all
three lands, do we not overestimate the
amount of hatred? Germany and Eng-
land have almost buried it, and America
will follow. Above all, it has had to
struggle more and more with the opposite
feeling. Those who really know are sure
that the strongest mental effect of these
two years of war is a new mutual re-
spect of the belligerent nations for one
another. The Germans had never believed
that France still possessed such wonder-
ful courage and that Russia had im-
proved its national life so much since the
Japanese war and that Great Britain
would find such imposing loyalty in its
colonies. Nor had Western Europe be-
lieved that Austria or " the sick man,"
Turkey, would show so much strength,
and the admiration for Germany's effi-
ciency is proved by the eager imitation.
The loud and fashionable detestation be-
longed to the claptrap of the war; the
increased respect will be the lasting out-
come. How England and France or Eng-
land and the Boers hated each other!

THE ALLIES OF THE FUTURE

1069

How bitter was the hatred between Rus-
sia and Japan, and today they are cor-
dially united. When peace conies the
hatred will be the nightmare of yester-
day; the Teuton mind will shake it off
and America, Britain, and Germany
will form the one alliance which will
secure peace without any clouds on the
horizon.

But surely one other resolution will
be necessary for it. If the world wants
real peace for the twentieth century it
must prepare for it by the terms of
Christmas, 1916. The one alliance which
can save Western Europe will not come
if it is not initiated by the spirit of
this Fall's peace negotiations. If any
great nation leaves the field humiliated
its rankling wound will endanger the
future. Each has bravely given its
heart's blood for its freedom, each must
return from the battle in honor with
unbroken sword. The triumph of past
conflicts was to see the foe in the dust;
in our age of the new idealism the great-
est triumph in the struggles of war, as
in the battles of social reform, is not
to crush the enemy but the enmity. This
war was worth the appalling sacrifices
only if through it not one people but
mankind is advanced. Each nation must
feel a stronger self-reliance, a happier
willingness to live up to its mission, a
larger trust in its safety and its future
than it ever felt in the age before the
explosion. That was a time of distrust
and suspicion and envy and anger and
fear which choked the strongest; we
greet the new time of mutual con-
fidence.

Germany has earned the most obvious
war laurels of the old style, as its brave
armies hold the conquered lands of the
enemy. It is, therefore, first of all Ger-
many's duty to initiate the coming age;
and Germany is ready. Germany will
not demand a square foot of the con-
quered territory in France or Belgium;
this is an area abundant in treasures of
the soil which Germany needs; but it
will renounce them, and this ought to
be the symbol for the settlements of the
coming Winter. More than that, the Ger-
mans see with open eyes that they will
suffer great and painful colonial losses.

The jewel of their love, Kiao-Chau, may
never be returned to them; and, worse,
the only large colony which was really
fit for the German immigrant, Southwest
Africa, may be held by the Boers who
invaded it. It will be only a small ter-
ritorial substitute if Germany receives
the old German province of Courland
from Russia and perhaps other African
colonies from France, from Belgium,
from Portugal, where German people can-
not live, but from which at least raw
material may be secured for German
industry.

Germany even seems to be willing in
the interest of the peace of Europe to
have Poland made a kingdom again,
connected with Austria. No doubt this,
too, involves a certain German sacrifice,
as it may easily bring restlessness to
the Poles of Prussia's eastern provinces.
It may be that Bessarabia will go to
Rumania, but surely Russia will have
no reason to complain. A wonderfully
rich prize will be hers, as the world will
be ready to give all Persia to Russia,
and with it the harbors which no ice can
block. Even Afghanistan may fall to
her lot.

England, as always through the cen-
turies, will be a winner without loss. The
diamond land of Southwest Africa may
be added to Rhodesia. But England will
also get possession of Egypt, after hav-
ing forgotten for a while that she does
not possess it yet. France will receive
back all the land which Germany has
conquered, and it may be that the peace
conference will give to her that part of
Lorraine which she occupies today, per-
haps in exchange for a good part of
Morocco in order that Germany may have
at least some foothold in Africa where
Germans can live in a Moderate climate.
Belgium will certainly go back to the
Belgians, and at last their racial instinct
will be fulfilled; the Flemish and the
Walloons will find the chance to have
separate administration in their own lan-
guages.

It is easy to foresee that there will be
some malcontents in every German vil-
lage who will complain as the Japanese
complained after the peace of Ports-
mouth. They will feel that the German

1070 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

armies had made the greatest gains and
that the diplomats took from their hands
what they conquered. Their lament will
sound faintly in the chorus of German
approval.

When the war broke out no responsible
German dreamed of conquest. The car-
toonists of her enemies amused their pub-
lic with Germany's plans for European
dominion and comforted them with Ger-
many's failure, as she did not even swal-
low Paris and Petrograd, not to speak of
Peking and Rio de Janeiro. The Ger-
mans made in Germany see the hopes ful-
filled with which they took up the defense
of their country. Not the gain of ter-
ritory but the safety of Germany's fu-
ture was their dream. Long freight
trains will move to and fro between Ber-
lin and Bagdad, the pressure from east
and west will be removed, the sea will be
free for Germany's industry and world
commerce, the encircling ring of jealousy
is broken once for all. Europe knows
now the German swords and spears; to-
morrow they will be beaten into pruning
hooks and plowshares. The jealousy be-
tween England and Germany will yield
to an earnest desire for mutual under-
standing, and each will learn from the
other. Germany's respect for England's
success in its colonies and England's re-
spect for Germany's social organization
will mold the future of the two nations.

How much less would Germany gain, if it
gained more !

But it is not enough that Germany
and England alone lay the foundations
for the great future alliance in the peace
negotiations. The third partner must
not wait until the decisive steps x>f the
European nations have been taken. The
one alliance which can. crown the century
demands not only that Germany and
England find each other but that they
find each other through the good-will of
America. Sensationalists have tired our
ear with their cries of remember this
and remember that and remember every-
thing; it is a greater art and a higher
task to forget. If America will, both Ger-
many and England can forget, and in the
ocean of thought which binds the three
peoples the submarines of emotion will
leave their torpedoes at home and will
ply unarmed to the foreign shores. In-
dividuals are freer than peoples. Noth-
ing seems needed but that three great
men listen to the voice of the age and
fulfill today the sacred task for which
it may be too late tomorrow. The gods
of history have put three great Demo-
crats each into the place of honor and
trust and power. If Woodrow Wilson,
Bethmann Hollweg, and Lloyd George
will speak the word for which the cen-
tury is ripe, not only this war will be end-
ed, but future wars will be impossible.

The Vitality of France

How the Nation Recovered From Three Devastating Wars

By Ernest Lavisse

Of the French Academy

This address, translated for CURRENT HISTORY from Les Annales de France, is the last
of a series of twelve historic letters addressed to the French people. It is written by
Ernest Lavisse of the French Academy, President of the Committee of Publication, which
consists of fifteen of the intellectuals of the republic, including Bedier, Bergson, Boutroux,
Denis, Admiral Degouy, and other conspicuous leaders in academic and literary circles.

THE English and the French, today
faithful allies, often were bitter
foes. One of their wars lasted a
hundred years. France seemed
definitely conquered when, in 1422,
the foolish King Charles VI. died.

Charles VII., who succeeded him, reigned
over only some cantons of the Loire
country, and gave up hope of recover-
ing his kingdom. Joan of Arc, a true
daughter of our people, knew, as our
people know today, that France cannot

0 S

THE VITALITY OF FRANCE

1071

die; she said so to the King, to the
Bishops, to the lords, to the common folk;
they believed her, and you know that
marvelous history — the triumphal entry
at Rheims, where King Charles was
crowned in presence of Joan, who, stand-
ing in the choir, held her standard aloft.
Alas! Joan did not see the decisive vic-
tory; she died on the pyre at Rouen; but
she had predicted that the invaders would
be driven out except those who might re-
main to be buried there. The prediction
was fulfilled, and King Charles reigned
over France delivered.

But France suffered cruelly from this
war.

A bourgeois of Paris, who wrote at
the beginning of the reign of Charles
VII., relates that the starving Parisians
besieged the doors of the bakeries; the
little children were crying, "I am hun-
gry! I am hungry! " " They had," says
he, "neither corn, nor wood, nor coal."
They had cabbage stalks and "herbs
without cooking them, without bread or
salt."

The greatest evil was done by the
troops of mercenary soldiers, who served
indifferently the King of France or the
King of England. They were neither
French nor English; they were, as they
called themselves, " Flayers," and merit-
ed that name, for they flayed France.

" I have seen with my eyes," says
Thomas Basin, Bishop of Lisieux, "the
countries of Champaign, Brie, Gatenais,
the Chartrain territory, Dreux, Maine,
Perche, those of the Vexin, of the Beau-
voisis, of the territory of Caux from the
Seine as far as Amiens, of Senlis, of the
Soissonais, of the Valois, and all the
country as far as Laon and beyond Hai-
naut, hideous to look at, void of peasants,
full of briers and thorns." We believed
we were reading a description of the
country ravaged in our days by the Ger-
mans.

A letter of Jean Juvenal des Ursins,
Bishop of Beauvais, addressed to King
Charles, seems also to bear upon the
deeds of the German barbarians today:
" How many churches have been burned !
They seize the unfortunate laborers ; they
imprison them; they put them in irons
in places full of filth, full of vermin.

They are not set free until after having
paid more than they have. These brig-
ands maltreat also the women and the
girls. * * * "

The Bishop speaks again of mills, of
kilns, of wine presses, of all sorts of
utensils destroyed. In the same way to-
day the German "Flayers" in Belgium
and in France ruin the places and the
instruments of labor, as if they wished
to destroy the future. •

The whole kingdom had its share of
suffering.

"Alas! Sire," concluded the Bishop of
Beauvais, " look at your other cities and
countries, like Guyenne, Toulouse, Lan-
guedoc. All is going to destruction
and desolation, even to final perdition ! "
" Final perdition ! " Jean Juvenal des
Ursins thought then that this was the
end of all.

But the peasants who had sought
refuge in the strong castles and in the
cities, immediately after the conclusion
of peace, returned to the fields. " They
deeply rejoiced," says Thomas Basin, " to
see the woods and the fields again, the
green meadows, and to see the waters of
the rivers rolling. They began to work
everywhere. Not only the old cultures
are resumed, but the plow attacks the
woods and the uncultivated ground, and
soon the arable lands of the kingdom will
be increased by a third.

" Commerce revives. The fair of Lyons
attracts people of all lands. King Charles
concludes treaties of commerce; he is in
correspondence with the Sultan of Tur-
key and the Sultan of Morocco. Our mer-
chants traffic in the seas of the North,
and on the coasts of the Mediterranean,
Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt,
Syria. Also there is a revival of pros-
perity in the Kingdom of France, which
poets of the time celebrated."

France recovers her ancient grand-
eur. Even before being completely free,
Charles sends troops into Alsace; some
of them he leads into Lorraine. He
remembers that the left bank of the
Rhine formerly belonged to his " prede-
cessor Kings of France "; he protests
against " the usurpations and enterprises
practiced upon the rights of his kingdom
and crown of France." He wishes " to

1072 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

reduce to his allegiance " these usurped
countries. Charles VII., so unimportant,
so miserable upon his advent, became the
greatest personage of Europe; the Doge
of Venice, receiving his Ambassadors,
declares that " the King of France is the
King of Kings, and that without him
there can be none."

IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY IV.

Let us pass a century and a half; we
now come to the accession of Henry IV.
in 1589. Just like Charles VII., he is
a King almost without a kingdom. He is
forced to fight not only three-fourths of
his subjects, who did not want to recog-
nize his authority, but also the Span-
iards, who wished to subjugate France.
He fights like a brave man with a hand-
ful of brave men. He is without the means
to clothe himself. " My pourpoint is worn
at the elbows," he says; and he lacks the
means of daily sustenance; his "pot is
overturned," and he eats sometimes with
one, sometimes with another. With cour-
age and skill he defeats all resistance.
In 1598 he imposes peace on the Span-
iards and he grants to the Protestants
by the Edict of Nantes liberty of con-
science. Thus closed a deplorable period
of foreign and civil warfare.

That war, which lasted forty years,
had put France as low as the hundred
years of the English war.

A foreign Ambassador writes: "There
is not a noble family in France where
the father or the son has not been slain
or wounded, or made prisoner." More
than 4,000 castles have been destroyed.
The people have not suffered less — more
than 700,000 men have been slain, nine
cities destroyed, and more than 125,000
houses of villages burned. On the fron-
tier almost all the villages are deserted.
Starving wolves roam the country. In-
dustrial work is stopped almost every-
where. At Provins, where 600 cloth
workers were employed, there remain
but four. At Tours, where the silk man-
ufacture had engaged 800 master work-
men and more than 600 journeymen,
there remain but 200; the journeymen
have disappeared. At Senlis, at Meaux,
Melun, Saint-Denis, Amiens, the cessa-
tion of work is equal or worse.

The cities are filled with beggars,
fugitive peasants, and workmen without
work. At Paris these poor people
crowded in the cemeteries, where they
slept on the tombs. On March 4, 1596,
the police counted 7,769 of them in the
Cemetery of the Innocents.

The hospitals are glutted with sick
whom they cannot nourish. The plague
begins its work. It carries off at Paris
150,000 persons in the year 1597.

Considering all these evils, Etienne
Pasquier said that a man who would have
slept during the forty years of war and
awakened would have believed that he
saw, not France any longer, but "a corpse
of France."

But behold how the corpse revives!

When war has ceased, the laborers
vigorously resume the plow. Sully aids
them with all his strength, for they were
the subjects of the King whom he loved
the best. He said: " Husbandry and
pasturage are the two breasts by which
France is nourished." The workmen com-
mence to hammer. The necessary in-
dustries prosper. Even some industries
de luxe are set on foot, that of silk, for
example. Henry IV. is proud to display
his feet incased in silk stockings made
in France.

In order to facilitate the circulation of
products of agriculture and of industry,
the roads destroyed are rebuilt and the
fallen bridges reconstructed. Navigation
is revived. Treaties of commerce are con-
cluded with foreign countries. The Sultan
renews the privileges of our merchants in
his States, and once more recognized the
protectorate of France over the Holy
Lands. More than a thousand French
vessels carry on commerce in the Levant.
At the same moment, France sets foot in
America. Quebec is founded in Canada,
and the " New France " colonized.

This renaissance of all our forces as-
tonishes the foreigner. Just Zinzerling,
who wrote a " guide " to France, avers
that wine abounds in the south. " The
City of Bordeaux forwards to itself alone
a hundred thousand hogsheads a year."
He saw everywhere extensive pastur-
ages, with grazing cattle. He admires
the abundance of fowl. Fortunately,

THE VITALITY OP FRANCE

1073

says he, they do not eat in other coun-
tries as many capons, hens, and pullets
as they do in France in one day, for the
species would perish. Even the prov-
inces which were the most tried by the
war regained their prosperity. Picardy
became " the granary of France."

But it is especially to the testimony
of the Venetian Ambassadors that we
must have recourse. These men studied
with great care and a serious intelli-
gence the countries where they repre-
sented their republic. In 1598 the Am-
bassador Duedo announces that in ten
years the kingdom, " if it has not re-
gained its old splendor, it is not far from
it." His successor, Vendramin, affirmed
also that France would easily re-estab-
lish herself, " as that has happened sev-
eral times in the space of a thousand
years and more." Two Envoys Extraor-
dinary, coming to Paris shortly after the
death of Henry IV., write to their Gov-
ernment that "the Kingdom of France,
by the misfortunes of the past, has not
been diminished in any of its forces";
"the body, very robust, cheered up in
sickness, developed in trials, and, as if
raised from the dead, has recovered, after
touching the ground, much stronger
than before." Finally, the Ambassador
Contarini writes these words, which we
should think over: "France, when she
herself does not weaken her own forces,
can always counterbalance any power
whatever."

Indeed, soon she counterbalanced the
power of the family of the Hapsburgs of
Austria and Spain, who then menaced
the liberty of Europe as the coalition of
the Hohenzollern family of Berlin and
of the Hapsburg family of Vienna
threaten it today. Henry IV. was about
to begin the struggle against them when
he was assassinated; the Hapsburgs had
a moment of respite; but soon Louis XIII.
and Richelieu are to come, and then Louis
XIV., and the King of France wiH be
again the " King of Kings."

THE TESTIMONY OF AN ENEMY

In the times nearest us, other ex-
amples of French vitality succeed one
another. Hearken! Listen well to the

evidence of a foreigner, of an enemy, of
a great enemy, the former Chancellor
of the German Empire, the Prince von
Billow. He writes, in his book entitled
" German Policy," that France has " an
unshakable faith in the indestructibility
of the vital forces of the nation," and
that " this dogma is based on the prece-
dents of history." He continues :

" No people has ever repaired as quick-
ly as the French the consequences of a
national catastrophe, none has ever re-
covered with the same ease, the elasticity,
the confidence in itself and the spirit of
enterprise after cruel mistakes and de-
feats which seemed crushing. More
than once Europe believed that France
had ceased to be potential, but each time
the French Nation again stood up erect
before Europe after a short delay, with
her vigor of old or an increase of force."

M. von Billow gives his proofs, of
which here is the last:

" The defeat of 1870 had for France
consequences graver than any other had
had before it, but it has not broken the
force which this people of a marvelous
elasticity can produce for a new oc-
casion."

This German of today thinks exactly
as did the Venetians of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Like them, and even more strong-
ly, he affirms that France is indestruct-
ible, and that the quickening, after great
crises, is a law of our history.

This law will apply itself once more
after the terrible crisis of today, for the
soil of France has preserved its natural
richness and the French are on the point
of proving that they have not lost the
energy of their fathers. Certainly, the
difficulties will be great. Not only will
it be necessary to repair the desolated
ruins, but portentous political and social
problems, which our fathers knew not,
will be presented to us. No matter! We
shall write in our history a new proof of
our vital force. We shall not ourselves
" enfeeble our own forces " by domestic
discord. We will not give to our abomi-
nable enemy this revenge — one of his
punishments shall be to see standing
erect, stronger and prouder, the France
he believed he had crushed.

The New Russia: A Myth or a Reality?

By Isaac Don Levine

A Russian Jew Who Came to America to Escape Russian Oppression

BEFORE the great war there were
in reality two Russias — the Rus-
sia of the people, the Russia of
tomorrow, and the Russia of the
Government, the Russia of yesterday.
The line was so sharply drawn between
the two that no observer failed to notice
it. Russia's autocracy came to be re-
garded universally as the most autocratic
institution among the nations of our
time, while Russia's democracy, as any
raw democracy is apt to be, was, to state
it mildly, radical in the extreme. That
the gulf between Russian bureaucracy
and democracy could ever be bridged
seemed beyond human credence. It was
the general belief that only the over-
throw of the bureaucracy could produce
a new Russia.

But the great war made possible the
impossible. The most bureaucratic au-
tocracy came to fight for the very life
of the world's democracy. Russia's rad-
ical forces could not but do the same
thing. The war has thus produced a
common object in the lives of the two
Russias. This extraordinary condition
could not fail to produce a corresponding
effect. There came into existence" a se-
ries of potent factors which are exerting
their influence toward the regeneration
of Russia, factors which are slowly but
successfully working toward bridging the
gulf between the two Russias and creat-
ing one free Russia.

The first and foremost of these fac-
tors is the nation's spontaneous response
to the many needs of the army, as ex-
pressed through the numerous social or-
ganizations actively engaged in co-oper-
ating with the army to insure victory.
Now social organization of any kind was
always obnoxious to the Russian Govern-
ment, for organization implies social
gatherings, public discussions, all demo-
cratic agencies. This time the social or-
ganizations were working for the achieve-
ment of the same end as the Government,

and for a while it was thought were to
be tolerated. But then they commenced
teaching the Government some lessons
in efficiency. They tackled the problems
facing the country in a manner that
made them indispensable to the Govern-
ment. Also, the Government soon real-
ized that there was a mutual bond be-
tween the army and the people, a bond
of sympathy and loyalty which was gen-
erated through the people's devotion to
the object of the war. As a result of
that bond, a phenomeral process is tak-
ing place in Russia — the democratization
of the army.

It is not the democratization of the
army's organic life that is occurring, but
the democratization of its spirit. The
Russian Army, with the exception of Ger-
many's, was the most soulless, blind, and
obedient military machine in Europe. As
the tool of the Government in crushing
internal disturbances it was hated and
feared by the people. The army paid the
nation in the same coin, fully justifying
its reputation. A Zabern affair was a
very common occurrence in Russia,
though seldom, if ever, reported in the
foreign press. Russian junkerism built
and fortified the wall between the army
and the people.

But that wall is nearly gone now.
Where there was mutual hatred, there are
mutual affection and co-operation now.
Not long ago Leonid Andreyev, foremost
among Russian dramatists and one of
the leaders of Russian democracy, made
his passionate appeal on behalf of the
Russian soldier. " Let us give all the
love we have, all the care and attention
we possess, to our soldiers! " he exhorted
the Russian people. Such words had
never before been heard in Russia from
the mouth of a liberal. And how did the
great Russian democracy respond to this
appeal ?

The anarchist, socialist, liberal Rus-
sia; her labor classes, her peasantry, and

THE NEW RUSSIA: A MYTH OR A REALITY?

1075

Intelligentsia, all are giving generously
and cheerfully their whole-hearted ma-
terial support to the Russian Army. The
Association to Organize Russian War In-
dustries, for instance, has in the last year
accomplished truly wonderful results. If
the army is now receiving its ammuni-
tion in boxes bearing the inscription,
made by the workingmen, " Spare no
shells! " it is mostly due to the fact that
Russian industries have nearly all been
turned into ammunition suppliers, that
railroad transportation in Russia, thanks
to the organization just mentioned, has
been greatly facilitated, and that Russian
labor has been intelligent enough to re-
main loyal to the cause of democracy.
The military class has come to see that
it was democracy which, in the hour of
need, had produced men of sterling pow-
ers of organization, such as Shingareff,
member of the Duma, and Prince G.
Lvoff, President of the All-Russian
Zemstvo Union. The army saw au-
tocracy, its former idol, fail most mis-
erably, as exemplified by the charges
against Sukhomlinoff, former War Min-
ister, and the nation rally to save it from
shameful disaster. Hence the demo-
cratization of its spirit.

But the nation's response has not been
expressed only in purely mechanical aid
to the army. To that must be added
extensive humanitarian work done by
other organizations, such as the All-Rus-
sian Zemstvo Union and the Union of
Municipalities. These bodies have re-
cently held national conventions in Mos-
cow, and it is amazing to read the re-
ports of their activities for the last year.
They have provided medical help for the
army and refugees, food stations for
trench diggers, care for war orphans,
legal aid for refugees and others. They
have bought the cattle of the peasantry
in the invaded provinces, coped with un-
employment, cared for crippled soldiers,
and located lost relatives of refugees.
These activities have not been carried on
in an accidental, local manner, but in a
well-organized, nationally systematized
movement, which is absolutely new to
Russia.

The Russian soldier could not remain
unmoved, finding his hereditary foe, the

revolutionary-democratic class, engaged
in providing food and shelter for his wife,
children, and aged parents. And the
Russian public has come to feel proud
of its soldiers, to whom history has allot-
ted the mission of fighting for civiliza-
tion and democracy.

The one big outstanding fact in the
situation is that public opinion has be-
come a force in Russia's national life.
.The Government has become impressed
by the growing power of the public, as
seen in the latter's activities and con-
tact with the army. It has recently
demonstrated upon several occasions its
new attitude toward the Russian democ-
racy, and it makes little difference
whether this change of attitude was volun-
tary or involuntary. The dismissal of that
most reactionary bureaucrat, Goremykine,
from the Premiership was forced through
public opinion, as expressed by Rodzi-
anko, President of the Duma, in his
famous letter to the Premier. The per-
sonal visit of the Czar to the Duma,
the first he ever made to that body, was
an event of deep significance in the same
respect. It was the acknowledgment by
Russian autocracy before all the world
that Russian democracy is now regarded
as a legitimate institution. Then, only
a short while ago, Sukhomlinoff, ex-War
Minister, was arrested and held for trial
as the individual responsible tor the de-
linquencies of the army during the Teu-
tonic invasion of last year. By this act
the Government branded itself as guilty
of gross inefficiency, incompetency, and
criminality in the past, and hanged its
head in shame, bowing before the new
spirit in administration of public affairs,
the spirit of public service, which has
been injected into the life blood of the
Government by the people's national or-
ganizations.

This injection means the creation of
another force for the making of a new
Russia. To make the rusty and anti-
quated machinery of the Russian Govern-
ment modern and efficient is going a
long way toward the transformation of
the country. It would be humanly im-
possible, no doubt, even through the me-
dium of a revolution, to change Russia's
vast Governmental plant from a dead to

1076

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

a live body in a short time. It is a task
of years, even under the most favorable
of circumstances. But this task has
been begun! Corruption and personal
ambition are slowly and steadily, though
with obstinate resistance, giving way to
the self-denying, self-sacrificing kind of
public service. And each new day brings
improvement and promise for the dawn
of a new era in Russia.

Thus, in the month of June alone sev-^
eral epoch-making reforms were promul-
gated in Russia. The temporary ban put
on alcohol by the imperial ukase at the
beginning of the war has now been made
permanent by a legislative act passed by
the Duma. This act provides for the
prohibition of all alcoholic beverages,
with the exception of some grades of
light wine. The scourge of the Russian
people has been removed for good. And
it was the peasantry, through its repre-
sentatives, that was chiefly responsible
for that removal.

Another reform of equal, if not great-
er, import is the passage of a bill pro-
viding for the full emancipation of the
Russian peasant. This was a Govern-
ment bill. It was an extension of the
historic reform of 1861, which abolished
serfdom in Russia. Since 1861 the moujik
had been no longer a slave, but neither
was he as free as the American negro,
for instance. The moujik was barred
from Government service. He was legal-
ly in a class by himself. And a peasant
passport meant in some cases as much
as a Jewish passport. Indeed, in some
respects, the disabilities of the peasant
were greater than those of the Jew. The
peasant had no legal right to be repre-
sented in the Imperial Council, which is
Russia's upper house, while the Jew had.
His representation in the Duma amount-
ed only to a fraction of the other classes.

The peasant is the backbone of Rus-
sian democracy. To unchain him has
been the aim of liberal Russia for
decades. And now the Russian Govern-
ment itself has been forced to put the
moujik on a basis nearly equal t!b that
of the merchant and land-proprietary
classes.

The Duma also passed at its last ses-
sion a bill providing for the appointment

of women to the positions of factory in-
spectors. The Russian woman is pro-
gressing at a rate as rapid as her West-
ern sister. She is forcing herself into
the industrial field as vigorously and
successfully as into the educational and
professional realms. After eighteen
months of war the number of women in
technical trades has increased 74 per
cent., and nearly 300 per cent, in the
metal manufacturing industries. Of the
teachers in the elementary schools of the
empire, 63 per cent, were women in 1915,
a considerable increase for the first year
of the war. Thousands of new schools
have been instituted throughout the
country in the last two years. At this
writing Russia is engaged in discussing
extensive plans formulated by the pro-
gressive Minister of Education, Count
Ignatyev, for fundamental reforms in the
high school system of the empire.

Perhaps no more striking illustration
of the changes for the better can be fur-
nished than the phenomenal decrease in
crime. In the year of 1915 the number
of criminal cases in Moscow constituted
only 49 per cent, of all such cases in
1913, a normal year. Prohibition was
chiefly responsible for this decrease, but
the new spirit permeating Russian social
life contributed a considerable portion
toward the reduction. This fact alone
would justify the claim that the social
forces now abroad in Russia are of a
nature that would sustain the most op-
timistic forecasts in regard to that na-
tion's future.

To sum up the value of the social
forces which the war has put in motion
for the making of a new Russia it would
be necessary to add to their past achieve-
ments also the results which they are
likely to attain in the future. Their past
is summarized in the fact, which no ob-
server of Russia's internal life will fail
to notice, that the tide of democracy in
Russia is visibly and indisputably rising
in all fields of public life, while that of
autocracy is just as visibly and steadily
ebbing.

The question thereupon arises: Is this
process to continue till democracy becomes
the predominant power in Russian life, or
may not a reaction set in and halt the

THE NEW RUSSIA: A MYTH OR A REALITY?

1077

progress of the democratic current ? The
answer lies in the very social forces
which are responsible for the rising tide
of democracy. Will these forces cease
their activities in the near future or at
the end of the war? It is self-evident
that such will not be the case, for they
are coping with ills that will not pass
away easily and quickly. No one will
claim that* the havoc wrought by the war
has not been fundamental and vast
enough to demand the attention of hu-
manity for generations to come. And
this havoc is daily growing more and
more disastrous, undermining every now
and then a new pillar of the social and
economic structure of each warring na-
tion, and therefore calling for greater
and more strenuous national exertions,
thus increasing the scope and momentum
as well as the creative powers of the
forces that are employed in the making
of a new Russia.

The economic forces working for the
same end constitute in themselves a
factor powerful enough to warrant their
reaching the political goal without any
support. First among them is the de-
velopment of Russia's natural resources,
both industrial and agricultural. Rus-
sia's latent industrial wealth is yet to
be computed. But it is generally agreed
that it is enormous. The vastness of
the country fully justifies this universal
belief. The war has given strong im-
petus to capital to seek investments in
Russia. American and other foreign in-
vestors are but awaiting the conclusion
of the war to pour their savings into
Russia.

And Russia herself is already prepar-
ing for the new day in her industrial his-
tory. A commission has recently been
created by the Russian Government,
which includes representatives of the
Council of the Empire and the Duma, to
study financial and industrial possibili-
ties in Russia and to prepare her for the
expected intense industrial activities.
The remaking of Russia from a semi-
feudal to a modern industrial country
means also its political regeneration.
Capital will produce those elements in
the country's population which form the
backbone of any true democracy, as it

will also revolutionize the governmental
machinery. Industrial development means
efficiency in all phases of a nation's life.
It also means the birth of a mighty labor
class, and therefore the inauguration of
many social reforms.

But should the country enter upon an
agricultural rather than an industrial era,
as many believe who hold that Russia
was primarily destined to remain a great
rural nation, the results would not be
different. The world would draw most
of the raw material required for its in-
dustries from Russia. This would bring
prosperity to the peasantry, and pros-
perity means education and modernity.
Money is a productive institution. Wealth,
whether in the possession of the urbanite
or villager, means the acquisition of all
that wealth can buy, and, first of all, of
those elementary things that make up the
bases of modern civilization. The net
result for Russia would again be the
growth of a powerful, intelligent de-
mocracy.

An interesting phase of the situation
has been pointed out recently by Count
Kokovtsev, who has for many years
served as Minister of Finance and who
was Premier after the death of Stolypin.
Although a typical bureaucrat, he had
the vision to see Russia's future as a
radical might have seen it. " Nothing
can go back to the old conditions," he
said. " There will be a constantly rising
standard of living which will affect all
our people in time and which will result
in the creation of entirely changed con-
ditions. Do you suppose, for example,
that the soldiers, who have now become
accustomed to having meat every day
with their rations in the army, and sugar
with their tea, which they can have all
day long at present, will ever be content
to go back to their villages and get meat
only a few times a year? This will re-
sult in the creation of new wants in
other ways, and new industries and new
imports will consequently become im-
perative."

Another economic factor for the mak-
ing of a better Russia, independent of
those enumerated, is the liberation of
Russia from the economic yoke of Ger-
many. " Russia was but a colony of Ger-

1078 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

many, economically," wrote recently an
eminent Russian publicist. It was the
Teutonic domination of the Russian mar-
kets which sustained the- political dom-
ination by Prussia over the Russian Gov-
ernment, and vice versa. When the- po-
litical yoke was broken by the present
war the economic yoke also burst into
fragments. But Russia will stand no
more economic domination, and her com-
mercial relations with France, England,
and, for that matter, with any other na-
tion, will be based on absolute equality
of mutual advantages. Should it come
to pass, however, that any of the allied
countries should attain a position to ex-
ert political influence in Russia, it would
be of an entirely different dye from the
Teutonic influence. It would be another
force for civilization, democracy, and
liberty.

There is every indication now that the
chief economic forces enumerated are in-
dustriously preparing for immediate ac-
tivity as soon as the war ends. Russia,
in all probability, will develop simulta-
neously both industrially and agricultur-
ally. Her commerce will expand in de-
grees parallel to the growth of her pro-
ductive wealth. It is not impossible that
Russia is now facing an economic epoch
as marvelous as that through which the
United States passed after the civil war.
No imagination can calculate the possi-
bilities of such an era for Russia and
for the whole world.

With the social forces now pervading
Russia's national life, and with the latent
economic forces awaiting their oppor-
tunity to join them, the new Russia is
evidently a reality already in process of
evolution.

Serb and Croat Rivalry for Bosnia

By the Rev. M. D. Krmpotic

Croatian Priest and Historian, Now in America

The remoter causes of the great icar can be traced directly to the Balkans, and especially
to the conflict of races, religions, and national ambitions centring on the Dalmatian Coast.
One phase of this age-long conflict is presented in Father Krmpotic' s article. Bosnia and
Herzegovina are claimed alike by Austria-Hungary, by the Serbs of the Orthodox Church, who
desire to set up a Southern Slav kingdom, and by the Croats, ivho are mostly Catholics and
have a different ambition. Austria's annexation of thesis provinces icas the immediate cause
of the Serbian bitterness that led to the assassination at Serajevo, and this in turn led to
Austria's ultimatum and the catastrophe of Europe.

Th\3 purpose of the folloiving article is to show that Bosnia and Herzegovina should not
be incorporated in a Greater Serbia, as Serbians desire if the Allies are victorious, but that
those territories should be united to the kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, which is part of the
Hungarian divisions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Crotia-Slavonia was separated from
Hungary and made an Austrian croivnland in 1849, but was reunited to Hungary in 1868.

BOSNIA and Herzegovina were un-
known to the Roman rulers until
Croatian immigration had begun
at the end of the sixth century
from White Croatia, now Eastern Gali-
cia; there it remained a part of Roman
Dalmatia and Illyria, or Illyricum. The
earliest inhabitants of the territory now
covered by Bosnia and Herzegovina were
the Illyrians. They were replaced in the
seventh and eighth centuries of the
Christian era by Croatian tribal divis-
ions, or Zupanates. The two provinces
were never united in the past. Their ori-

gin can be traced to a conglomeration of
various political bodies, drifting together
during the centuries, the changes being
influenced at times by fate, or again by
administrative policies. Most of these
political bodies were integral parts of
the Croatian, rather than of the Serbian
State.

One must ascertain what territory was
originally covered by the designation of
Bosnia; then observe how this province
widened, was subdivided and transferred
to different jurisdictions and sovereign-
ties, and, after vanishing entirely during

SERB AND CROAT RIVALRY FOR BOSNIA

1079

the period of Turkish occupation, has
now become a territorial division, desig-
nated geographically as Bosnia and Her-
zegovina.

The original Bosnian territory is men-
tioned in the middle of the tenth century
as a part of Serbia, but it was before
that time, as it was later, a part of
Croatia. Herzegovina and Bosnia came
under Turkish rule, like so many other
parts of the Croatian Kingdom. The
Turks joined all those divisions into one
Governmental district, called a pashalic.
At this time Bosnia reached its great-
est extent. From 1437 to 1699 is the
period of the Turkish wars. By the end
of the fifteenth century the tide of the
Ottoman invasion had crept up as far
as the River Save, and this newly
reached line of defense of the Christian
West offered a subborn resistance to the
Turkish onslaught. In the decimating
wars which terminated with the peace
of Karlovci, Croatia proper never was
conquered by the Turks, or by any of
its later or present enemies.

In the first half of the fourteenth
century the Serbian Empire had reached
its zenith. Stephen Dushan the Strong,
(1331-55,) the greatest of all the rulers
of Serbia, had as his constant aim a
Greater Serbia, which should unite all
the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula and
win for himself the crown of a new
Oriental empire, with its centre at Con-
stantinople. In 1389 the Serbian im-
perial army was defeated on the battle-
field of Kossovo by the Turks.* After
this defeat Serbia became a Turkish
pashalic, and so remained to 1804.

Dushan's program for a Greater Serbia
is accepted by modern Serbian rulers and
politicians, their agents and adherents,
anticipating the soft, warm nests prom-
ised them. It is known among the high-
spirited Serbians as an " avowed right,
avowed thought, of all Serbs " to have,
hold, possess, and dominate the whole
Balkan Peninsula, between the four seas

*The Serbs at Kossovo fought so gallantly
that each recurring anniversary of the battle
is still celebrated by their descendants. Re-
cently in England, out of compliment to the
Serbs, Kossovo Day was recognized by the
British Government.

and the valleys of the Rivers Danube
and Drave.

As a result of the battle of Mohacs in
1526 the Turks -subjugated the Hun-
garian Kingdom. But Croatia repulsed
the Turks and defended itself and Chris-
tianity. Back to the dawn of history the
Croat branch of the Slav race had lived
a hard life and fought for existence.
They had struggled with Avars, Fran-
conians, Saxons, Germans, Huns, Mon-
gols, Latins, and Turks. They have saved
Western civilization to posterity. Before
the battle of Mohacs the Croatian mag-
nates met in Diet and decided " to ask
help from the Emperor Charles V. and
the Austrian Prince Ferdinand as ruler
of the Slovenian countries to reoccupy
Bosnia and dominate it." After the battle
of Mohacs, as the Hungarian Army was
annihilated and the King of Hungary and
Croatia had perished and the throne was
therefore vacant, the Croats met on Jan.
1, 1527, in Diet sitting at Cettinje and
unanimously elected Fredinand Haps-
burg as their King and confirmed the
succession to his heirs. The Hapsburgs
ever since have been the legal Kings of
Crotia. At the election of Ferdinand at
Cettinje Bosnia was represented, which
speaks for itself and proves that Bosnia
was a part of Croatia. Ever since then
the Kings of Croatia have held the title
of King of Bosnia as an official appel-
lation.

The Croatians have always asserted
their rights to Bosnia. The miserable
conditions and sufferings of their broth-
ers in Bosnia were always in their heart
and mind. The Pragmatic Sanction regu-
lating the succession to the throne,
unanimously accepted by the Croats in
Diet on March 9, 1712, expressly re-
quested that all parts of the Croatian
Nation or State be united. This sanction,
as well as the election diploma of 1527,
was acknowledged by the present ruler
of the monarchy in his answer to the
Croatian Parliament on Oct. 8, 1861. Sec-
tion 3 of the diploma to which he swore
on his coronation in 1867 reads: "We

promise

all the parts of Hun-

gary and its sister kingdoms, Croatia,
Dalmatia, and Slavonia, which are occu-
pied already, and those which shall be by

1080 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Divine help reoccupied, (Bosnia and Her-
zegovina,) to incorporate them according
to the tenor of our oath on coronation, to
the named land and the sister kingdoms."
Here is the positive sanction of so solemn
a law as the coronation oath indicating
the rights of Croats to Bosnia and Herze-
govina.

On July 1, 1875, the villagers of Neve-
sin je, in Herzegovina, started an insur-
rection, and within a few weeks the whole
country was involved. In July, 1876,
Serbia and Montenegro joined the strug-
gle, and in 1877 Russia declared war on
the Sultan. By the agreements of 1876
and 1877, and by the secret convention of
July 13, 1878, Russia had doubtless con-
sented to the annexation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina to Austria, in view of the
impending Russo-Turkish war. These
were intended to purchase Austro-Hun-
garian neutrality. In the war of 1877
and 1878, Rumania helped Russia and
Turkey was compelled to sue for peace,
which resulted in the treaty of St.
Stefano. The treaty reduced the power
of the Sultan in Europe to a shadow.
If it had been carried into effect, Bul-
garia would have owned three-fifths of
the whole peninsula, with a population
of 4,000,000.

The great powers now intervened, fear-
ing that this big Bulgaria would become a
Russian dependency. Under these cir-
cumstances it would have mattered little
to Russia that the central power incorpo-
rated Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the
exception of Montenegro, the Serbians
long have been left out of account by Rus-
sian statesmen. The revision of the
treaty of St. Stefano at the Congress of
Berlin inflicted deep humiliation on Rus-
sia. Great Britain (represented by Dis-
raeli) and France helped Germany and
Austria to tear up the treaty, and in-
curred the moral responsibility for the
carnage and havoc in the Balkans since
1878 up to these bloody days in Europe.
For these diplomatic good offices Great
Britain secured the Island of Cyprus, the
price of peace with honor !

The Croats never tried to obliterate the
name nor the existence of the Serbians,
nor denied to them their customs, their
history, and cultural achievements. On

the contrary they sympathized with them,
won pride in their independence and
their kingdom of Serbia, and always ac-
corded to them all rights belonging to a
nation. But the Serbian program or de-
sign laid down by Dushan the Strong, to
absorb all the Slavic nations in the Bal-
kans, so as to constitute a Greater Ser-
bia, never was accepted, nor will it be, by
the Croats or by any of the Balkan
branches of the Slavic people. The plat-
form containing the sweeping conse-
quences of the losing of their national
name, history, and independence is bit-
terly opposed by all patriotic Croats and
Slovenes from the Drina to the Sotcha
(Isonzo) and from the Danube and Drave
to the Adriatic.

The Serbians are denying flatly the
Croatian right to a name, a history, and
even a language. They proclaim that
Croatia, Dalmatia, Istria, Slavonia, Bos-
nia, and Herzegovina were and are prov-
inces of the Serbian Empire, and that
the people living there are pure and gen-
uine Serbs. But, alas, the teachers of
this doctrine, its defenders and propaga-
tors, cannot prove it by anything save
their political fantasy and fanaticism,
backed by mere assertion. Some native
Croats are spreading such doctrines,
playing the role of traitors to their people
and cause; for a dish of lentils or a
Judas reward or fat position in Greater
Serbia. Traitors are everywhere.

Serbia never had a steady and perma-
nent control over those countries, even at
the time of Dushan the Strong. Serbians
emigrated to the countries mentioned'
above and were welcomed by Croats to
share their destinies. In the second half
of the nineteenth century they played a
more important role in politics. Their
leaders in the Bosnian insurrection want-
ed to occupy those two countries and di-
vide them between the two principalities
of Serbia and Montenegro, or establish a
new Serbian kingdom, but Britain and
France nipped their hope in the bud.

The Croats are mostly Catholics, and
as such are disliked by the Serbs, who do
not know yet what it means to respect
the religious convictions of their neigh-
bors. The Catholics in Serbia itself are
under the jurisdiction of the See of

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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, WITH OTHER SERB AND CROAT PROVINCES,
WHOSE ANNEXATION BY AUSTRIA WAS A PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE WAR.

Djakovo, in Croatia- Slavonia, and their
Bishop never dared to pay them a pastoral
visit. In the conquered Macedonia after
the Balkan war was over, all the Catholic
schools in the province were closed by
order of the Government, and priests
were interfered with in their pastoral
work before and after the conclusion of
the Concordat with the Holy See. All
the Croats know well that if a Greater
Serbia were formed they would, over
night, by a Government order, be con-
verted into Serbs. Religious freedom
would be an imaginary and futile thing
existing at the pleasure of Government
parasites, as is shown by the fact that
Catholics were not allowed in Serbia
proper to erect a church building in
which to worship God, and were forced
to conduct services in the Chapel of the
Austrian legation.

The Serbian Foreign Minister, Dr.
Milovanovich, on Jan. 2, 1909, declared
in the Skuptschina that the fate of Bosnia
would be not merely an eminently Ser-
bian, but also a European question, and

argued that the mission of Austria-Hun-
gary in the Balkan Peninsula was now
at an end. But the rivers Danube and
Save must at all costs remain the legal
boundary between the Hapsburg Mon-
archy and Serbia. By this he avowed his
desire to give up a part of Greater Serbia,
namely Croatia and Slavonia, to Serbian
friends, the Magyars.

The Serbian press does not know self-
restraint, nor has it a sense of proportion.
" Either Europe must concede our de-
mands," wrote Politika on Feb. 6, 1909,
" or it will come to a fearful and bloody
war." Samouprava, the official organ of
the Serbian Government on Feb. 2, was
not less violent in its communique appeal-
ing to the signatory powers of the Berlin
Treaty. The powers at the initiative of
France made a joint representation at
Belgrade, urging Serbia not to insist on
her territorial demands. On the 27th of
March, 1909, Serbia acknowledged the an-
nexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as
a fait accompli.

The Mohammedans in Bosnia avow at

1082 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

present their national dependence on
Croatia, and accept the program of the
Croatian Party of Right, the most pop-
ular and strongest party in these coun-
tries. The Pan- Serb idea cannot reach
the imagination of the Mohammedans,
nor attract them to advocate it.

From the outset our explanations and
reasoning show that Bosnia and Herze-
govina are Croat countries. The present
war in Europe will bring changes in the
boundaries of that part of the Balkans.
The Serbians expect and are working
through the diplomatic channels of the
Entente Powers to create a Greater
Serbia. If they succeed, peace in that
section of Europe never will be perma-
nent; for the Serbs are not likely to
diminish or quench the flames of their
religious or national fanaticism.

What, then, would happen if Bosnia
and Herzegovina should fall to Serbia?
In answer let us quote a well-considered
authority: "People in this country are
apt to ignore the question altogether, or
at least to say, ' Oh, yes, of course, if
the Allies win, the Serbs will get Bosnia.'
Those who talk thus have not grasped
the elements of the great problem, of
which Bosnia, like Serbia itself, is only
one section. The idea that to transfer
Bosnia alone from Austria-Hungary to
Serbian hands would settle anything
whatever, fatally ignores alike the laws
of geography and those considerations

of national sentiment which dominate
politics in Southeastern Europe. In
every respect Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Dalmatia complement each other." The
acquisition of Bosnia by Serbia would at
once compel the latter, willy-nilly, to
aspire to possess Dalmatia.

It was possible before 1878, and a
decade after, when there were no rail-
ways or other modern means of com-
munication in the Balkans, with Bosnia
stifled under Turkish rule, to keep na-
tional consciousness inactive, to foster
local or provincial patriotism, with the
effect of keeping the countries or States
separated, even though it was unnat-
ural. But in our time the situation is
radically changed ; the sentiment is deep-
ly rooted in the hearts and minds of the
people that in union is strength, and
the solution of the problem should be
effected through natural channels as they
have existed in the past, all warranted
by present conditions and justified by
international law. Let every one have
his own, and there will be peace in Bos-
nia, as runs a common proverb among
Croats. The small nations have a right
to existence and to work out their own
destinies according to the laws of nat-
ure and its Author.

NOTE.— The Serbian Skuptschina, (Parlia-
ment,) which was abolished when the coun-
try was conquered, was convoked on Aug. 3,
1916, by the Serbian Government de facto at
Corfu, with the sanction of King Peter.

The Russian Campaign In Turkey

By James B. Macdonald

ALL the Russian movements, wheth-

/\ er into Turkey or into Persia,
JLJL started from Transcaucasia,
whose northern boundary, the
Caucasus Mountains, marks the dividing
line between Europe and Asia. These
mountains resemble the Pyrenees in
Spain, and stretch from the Black Sea to
the Caspian Sea. The main railway of
the province runs parallel with them
from Baku to Batum. Another railway
runs south from Tiflis, on the main sys-
tem, to Alexandropol, whence it branches
off — one section, via Kars, to the Turkish
border, and the other, via Erivan, to
Julfa, on the Persian frontier.

Baku is connected with the railways of
Southern Russia by a line running north
along the western shore of the Caspian
Sea, and by steamer with the railways of
Siberia at Krasnovodsk, on the opposite
shore. It is apparent, therefore, that Rus-
sia has ample facilities for sending to the
front in Turkey and in Persia whatever
troops may be necessary for her military
purpose.

The southern part of the province is
taken up by a portion of the highlands of
Armenia, the remainder extending be-
yond the frontier and covering most of
Turkish Armenia and a little of North-
west Persia. It is here that the main
armies of Russia and Turkey have been
contending with each other.

HIGHLANDS OF ARMENIA

The present political boundary between
Turkey and Russia is purely convention-
al, and for our present purpose may be
disregarded. The same kind of country
— the highlands of Armenia — is met with
on both sides of the border. It is char-
acterized by an exalted prolongation of
the Persian plateau, sometimes flat and
sometimes undulating, with rich pastures
at an elevation of 5,000 to 6,000 feet.
From this rise numerous bare mountain
ranges, with an average elevation of"
8,500 to 10,000 feet, while an occasional

peak attains the line of perpetual snow —
like Mount Ararat, (16,930 feet.) The
annual rainfall is less than twelve inches,
and the climate presents extremes of
heat and cold in Summer and Winter.

On the southeastern and southern
sides the highlands descend through a
series of terraces to the plateau of Persia
and the plains of Mesopotamia, while on
their western side they break down in
gradation to the plateau of Anatolia,
(Asia Minor.) The head waters of the
Euphrates and Tigris Rivers rise in these
mountains, but, as they pass through
deep mountain gorges, they are of little
benefit to army transportation, although
the natives use rafts when coming down
stream.

WAR IN THE HIGHLANDS

Turkey opened the war of conquest she
had sought by dispatching the Ninth,
Tenth, and Eleventh Army Corps, under
General Liman von Sanders of the Ger-
man Army, to drive the Russians beyond
the Caucasus Mountains. The time was
well chosen. The Russians had met with
their early reverse in East Prussia and
might be expected to be too preoccupied
on their western front to meet an attack
in their rear.

The plan of campaign was skillfully
conceived, but its operation was badly
timed, with the result that the Ninth
Corps was , overwhelmed at Sari Kamish,
the Eleventh Corps driven back on Erz-
erum, and the Tenth Corps left in the
air at Ardahan in an attempt to isolate
the fortress city of Kars. In due course,
the Tenth Corps was defeated and, in its
retreat up the valley of the Chorakh, cut
to pieces by the pursuing Cossacks.

The Twelfth Army Corps, from its
base at Mosul, invaded Persia in January,
1915, by following the caravan road to
Urmia, and hence to Tabriz, but was
driven back later.

The Russians did not follow up their
victory, but remained on the defensive

1084 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

throughout the year 1915. Their efforts
were mainly directed to holding their
own frontier, to guarding the caravan
route into Northern Persia, and to set-
ting free as many troops as possible for
their campaign in Europe.

In the Fall of the year Grand Duke
Nicholas appeared on the scene and took
hold of affairs. Nothing further was
heard of him until the approach of the
Russian new year — about a fortnight
after ours — when the whole front began
to agitate. On Jan. 10, 1916, the Russian
right wing drove in the Turkish outposts
and occupied Arkhava, on the Black Sea.

The Russian centre, which held the
line from Lake Tortum to Alasgerd, was
ordered to attack the opposing Turks,
and after a three days' battle they were
decisively beaten and retired on Erzerum,
Kopri-Koi, and Hassankala fell in suc-
cession, and at the last-mentioned place
1,500 prisoners were taken, with much
booty. The Russian Army was now with-
in striking distance of Deve Boyun, the
famous ridge, 6,860 feet high, which lies
across the main road leading into Erze-
rum. It stands some 2,000 to 3,000 feet
above the plateau, and was guarded by
eleven forts.

On Feb. 12 the bombardment began.
While one Russian army was engaged in
a frontal attack, another swept down from
the north and cut off part of the Tenth
Turkish Army Corps, and yet another
army turned the southern defenses of
Erzerum through a mountain region
where the Turks deemed it impossible for
them to advance, and had neglected its
defense.

The main assault lasted five days, and
on Feb. 16 Grand Duke Nicholas reported
to the Czar that Erzerum, the eastern
gate of Asia Minor, had fallen to the
valor of his Siberian troops.

This feat will rank high in military
history, and may be compared with Napo-
leon's crossing of the Alps.

Meanwhile, the Russian right and left
wings attacked simultaneously with their
centre. The former drove the Turks, in
the Lake Tortum district, back in disor-
ganized flight to Erzerum, while the lat-
ter outfought its opponents and occupied
Khryskale, and later Mush.

On leaving Erzerum, the Turkish Army
broke up into three separate and uncon-
nected bodies, one taking the road to
Trebizond, on the Black Sea, another tak-
ing the main road due west to Erzingan,
and the third retiring south along the
road to Mush. The Russian armies con-
formed to these directions and followed in
pursuit.

On Feb. 18, Ispir, on the Chorakh
River, was captured; and on March 2 the
important town of Bitlis was carried by
assault during a snowstorm. Here 2,000
prisoners and twenty guns were taken.
The defeated right wing retired on Sert,
covering the partially built railway line
from Aleppo to Mosul, the passage of the
Tigris River, and the road to Diarbekr —
the security of which is essential to the
safety of the Turkish Army in Mesopo-
tamia.

The Russian right wing, however, was
held up by the Turks strongly posted
among the razor-backed mountains and
gorges in the vicinity of Baiburt, who
were defending the road to Trebizond.
The scene now shifts to the coastal
region.

THE BLACK SEA LITTORAL

All the way along the southern shore
of the Black Sea from the Russian fron-
tier to the Bosporus, a range of high,
rugged mountains runs parallel with the
coast. In places it reaches down to the
seashore, and nowhere are the lowlands
wider than fifty miles. Generally they
are very much less. The climate on the
sea front is mild. Russia has marked this
region out as one of her spoils from this
war, and intends that it shall be to her
people what the south of France is to
Western Europe.

These favored lands were, in olden
times, developed as Greek colonies. The
coast range, then as now, shut off com-
munication with the interior of the main-
land except by a road from Trebizond to
Erzerum and another from Samsun to
Angora. Intercommunication between
the coastal towns was maintained by a
rough road along the shore, or by vessel
oversea.

The Russians, finding their right wing
hung up in its advance on Trebizond by

1085

1086

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

the Turks strongly posted in the hills
covering the crossing of the Chorakh
River at Baiburt, had recourse to their
effective command of the Black Sea. An
independent force, dispatched either from
Batum or Sebastopol, was landed on
March 4, under cover of the guns of the
fleet, some seventy-five miles to the east
of Trebizond. Its progress was fiercely
but ineffectively contested by the Turks
at the crossing of Kara Dere, (Black
River.)

The Turks withdrew to Trebizond,
which the Russian warships were now
bombarding, while their transports were
landing more troops to the west of the
town. This caused the Turks to evacu-
ate Trebizond, and the Russians entered
the city on April 17.

The road to Baiburt is still open to the
Turks, but should they instead retire
along the coast, they run the risk of be-
ing cut off by another Russian debarka-
tion in the line of their retreat before
they can reach Samsun — the next point
where there is a reasonable prospect of
offering effective resistance.

WAR ON THE TERRACES

In the meanwhile, the Turkish army at
Erzingan, having been reinforced, at-
tempted to drive back the Russian centre
upon Erzerum, but was repulsed. The
latter resumed its advance on Erzingan,
the capture of which on July 26 forced
the Turks to retire from Baiburt and
cleared the road from Trebizond to Erze-
rum, as well as the branch road to Erzin-
gan, and enabled the Russian army on the
coast to progress rapidly toward Samsun.

The capture of Erzerum, Trebizond,
and Erzingan has already practically
given the Grand Duke command of all the
mountain region to the south. His left
army was lately beyond Mush and Bitlis,
fighting its way down the terraces to-
ward Diarbekr and Sert; but on Aug.
8 it was compelled by a strong Turkish
offensive to evacuate both Mush and
Bitlis. The plan of the Russians was to
debouch on to the plains of Upper Meso-
potamia and cut the Turkish communi-
cations between Aleppo and Mosul. This
would leave the Turkish army beyond
Bagdad in the air, although it probably

would, in these circumstances, attempt
to retreat up the Euphrates to Aleppo.
THE URMIA FLYING COLUMN
The northwest corner of Persia may be
considered as part of the Armenian high-
lands, with its mountain ranges and ele-
vated plateaus. The country to the north
of Tabriz and Lake Urmia consists of
parallel ranges, deep ravines, and here
and there fertile valleys. To the west
and southwest live the Kurds — an im-
portant factor in the military situation.
They dwell in the mountains along the
Turko-Persian border, from north of
Lake Urmia to the town of Kermanshah,
and take no heed of the political boun-
dary, which was settled over their heads
by Britain, Russia, Turkey, and Persia;
neither do they acknowledge Shah or Sul-
tan as their overlord.

By religion the Kurds are orthodox
Mohammedans, like the Turks, while the
Turks of Persia are, almost without ex-
ception, unorthodox. The interest of the
Kurds in foreign affairs is limited to
questioning strangers as to what Russia
is doing in Transcaucasia and what Brit-
ain is doing in India. In the previous
year some of their tribes joined the in-
cursion of Turks into Persia.

Grand Duke Nicholas deemed it pru-
dent early in the year to detach a strong
flying column to visit the Kurds and
insure their neutrality, or at least their
passive resistance. Nothing was heard
of this column for some time beyond
the fact that it was somewhere in the
Lake Urmia district, when it suddenly
provided the surprise of the campaign.

Passing through the unbeaten tracts
of the Kurd country, probably by a de-
tour from the caravan road between
Urmia and Mosul, it emerged in the
western foothills and surprised the Turk-
ish garrison of Rowandiz.

The Turks hastily armed all the local
Kurds and Arabs they could bring to-
gether and dispatched them, along with
their own reserves, to oppose the Rus-
sian advance across the plain to Mosul.

The latest cables would indicate that
the Kurds in the south, as well as those
in the north, are disaffected. This will
impede, but not stay, the advance of the
Russian flying wings. It is none the less

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN TURKEY

1087

a serious matter, because the Kurds in
Persia alone number about 1,000,000
people who may now be assumed to be
hostile to the enemies of Turkey. It may,
therefore, be necessary at a later and
more convenient period to disarm the
Kurd -tribes completely, a proceeding
which their neighbors would view with
satisfaction.

ADVANCES THROUGH PERSIA

At the outbreak of war Persia became
the centre of German activities to em-
barrass Britain and Russia in the East.
The propaganda was directed from the
German Legation at Teheran and their
Consulates throughout the country, and
sought in the first instance to bring
about a mutiny in the Indian Army and
to inflame the Mussulmans of Afghan-
istan and India to a holy war.

Afghanistan is practically a vassal
State of the Indian Empire — like the in-
dependent principalities in India — and a
word from the British Commissioner was
sufficient to have the. German and Turk-
ish emissaries there interned until the
end of the war.

Certain Swedish officers in the Per-
sian gendarmerie were won over by the
Germans, although they owed their ap-
pointment to the British and Russian
Governments. The Kurds and other
tribes were armed, British and Russian
Consulates attacked, and Persian tribes
invaded British Beluchistan — some 300
miles beyond the Indian frontier.

The Ministers of the Central Powers
had almost influenced the Shah to in-
trust himself to their protection when
the Russian commander at Kasbin, who
had considerable forces engaged in po-
licing the Russian sphere of influence,
warned the Shah in the name of Britain
and Russia that he would forcibly inter-
vene and marched on Teheran. The other
party fled to Ispahan, where the Rus-
sians followed and arrested many of
them.

Meanwhile the British landed troops at
Bushire and looked after the southern
rebellion. Bushire h#s been the seat of
British power and influence in the Per-
sian Gulf since the old East India Com-
pany transferred its headquarters from
Bender Abbas. They occupied Kerman,

the principal town in Southern Persia,
on June 12.

The Russian commander at Kasbin,
having secured his communications with
the seaport of Resht, on the Caspian Sea,
whence he could receive reinforcements
and supplies, advanced on Hamadan and
drove the rebels before him to Kerman-
shah. K[e occupied the latter town after
some severe fighting with Turks and
Kurds under German officers, who had
come as reinforcements and sought to
prevent a junction between the Russian
and British forces. He lost it in June
and regained it in July.

It is this Russian army which, advanc-
ing along the main caravan road toward
Bagdad, is now held up on the frontier
near Khanikin by a strongly intrenched
Turkish force.

These Russians were within eighty
miles of Bagdad — sufficiently near for a
detachment of Cossacks to make a de-
tour and join hands with the British at
Kut-el-Amara — but the British, after suf-
fering a long siege at Kut-el-Amara, and
being unable to receive reinforcements
or supplies, surrendered to the Turks,
whereupon the Russians fell back.

While these events were happening, the
Twelfth Turkish Army Corps from Mosul
advanced in January, 1915, along the
fairly good road through the Kurd coun-
try into Persia, occupied Urmia, and,
skirting the southern shore of the lake,
seized Tabriz, the capital of Northwestern
Persia, and the most important commer-
cial city in the whole country. This not
only threatened the Russian left wing in
the Armenian highlands, but also the
great oil fields of Baku and the Russian
main communications.

Russia was not slow in driving the in-
vaders back the way they came, and her
advance guard, by making a detour, as
previously stated, surprised the Turkish
garrison at Rowandiz and threatened Mo-
sul itself.

The Russian engineers have since car-
ried their railhead from Julfa, on the bor-
der, to Tabriz, which they were entitled to
do under a railway concession granted
by Persia previous to the Anglo-Russian
Convention of 1907. This enables them
to open up a new bass at Tabriz for the

1083 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Russian army advancing on Mosul, and
to open new and direct communication
with their army advancing on Bagdad.
THE PRESENT POSITION

It is apparent that the British and
Russian armies in Turkey are marking
time for the moment; and that the late
Lord Kitchener was on his way to con-
cert joint action with the Russian high
command in regard to this theatre, irre-
spective of whatever other business he
may also have had on hand.

The revolt of the Arabs in Arabia and
their seizure of the sacred cities of Mecca
and Medina appears to have been engi-
neered by the British as an effective
and crushing reply to Turkey's proclama-
tion of a holy war.

The Turks for some time have been
apprehensive that the British may em-
ploy their large excess army in Egypt to
effect a landing in the Gulf of Alexan-
dretta, or elsewhere on the Levantine
coast, with a view to seizing the unfin-
ished tunnels through the Taurus and

Amanus Mountains and the City of
Aleppo. That route is the only remain-
ing means of communication left to the
Turkish armies in Mesopotamia and
Syria, and, as it runs within twenty
miles of the coast, their apprehension
appears to be well founded.

Since the capture of* Erzingan the
Russians have steadily advanced in that
region, but very slowly. Their left wing
has met with stubborn resistance, and
has met with reverses in the Mush-Bitlis-
Urmia district. Bagdad seemed still se-
cure in Turkish possession at the close
of the second year of the war. Flying
detachments of Russians have sought to
cut the Bagdad Railway in the vicinity
of Aleppo, but no substantial force had
gained a footing in that district up to
the middle of August.

But when the Allies again get to bus-
iness in this theatre of war we may look
for dramatic happenings, and the early
elimination of Turkey from the war need
not surprise us.

Remaking International Law to Justify Zeppelin Raids

Professor Eltzbacher, Rector of the Commercial University of Berlin,
has published a book entitled " Dead and Living International Law," in which
he argues that the international law which applied when army fought against
army has become to a great extent a dead letter, now that nation fights nation.
Seeing, therefore, (he proceeds,) that war is now waged against a whole
enemy people, the justified aim of war is " to break the strength of the
enemy people, this strength being the last foundation of military resistance."
Professor Eltzbacher contends that any means that promises to be efficient may
be employed, for the purpose of breaking that strength, and he recommends par-
ticularly measures calculated to paralyze the psychic forces of the enemy nation.

Following up this argument, he asserts that " bombs may be dropped out of
the air even when no purely military purpose may be served thereby and no
economic damage caused, the justification being that fear and disinclination to
war are thereby engendered among the enemy people and the psychic founda-
tions of the conduct of the war thus destroyed." The learned author adds: "It
is true that individuals will be killed and injured and private property will be
damaged by bombs thus dropped, but this is only a means by which the nation
as a whole can be reached." Herr Eltzbacher would retain one prescription of
" obsolete " international law, namely, that which says: " The civilian population
participates only passively in war. It is forbidden to resort to force in any^ cir-
cumstances." That is to say, the German professor argues that the civilian
population must submit placidly to being bombarded from the air, but renders
itself liable to be court-martialed, should the opportunity occur, if it takes any
action in self-defense.

The Frankfurter Zeitung remarks that " as murderous inventions succeed
each other very quickly, and one can never be sure of possessing the last and
best, it will be very good policy to return to the ' old ' international law." It
does not quite see how this is to be done, but it concludes by asserting that " the
legal system which characterizes as appropriate and as^free from all objection
the bombardment of open towns from the air, with all its consequences, might
have conformed with Assyrian views and ideas, but does not conform with
European ideas^ and especially not with German."

The Kaiser's Attitude Toward France

By Ferdinand Bac

Translated from the French for CURRENT HISTORY

The distinguished French publicist, Ferdinand Bac, has contributed to La Revue
a vivid study of the German Emperor, which seems to show that, not long before the
war, the Kaiser warmly appreciated many qualities of the French Nation, and would
have done something to lighten the lot of Alsace and Lorraine if this could have been
accomplished without impairing his own prerogatives. But a few months before the
war his attitude underwent a marked change, turning, as was indicated in a famous
conversation with King Albert of Belgium, from partial sympathy to positive hostility.
It is probable that the influence of the Crown Prince, as leader of the war party,
counted for a good deal in this change. M. Bac tells how two French Dukes were the
Kaiser's guests at Kiel on board the imperial yacht Hohenzollern while the Meteor was
racing in the regatta.

DURING the race the Kaiser held
the steering wheel, buttressed in
a rigid attitude; during a turn
of the race he said to his guest:

" Good! I see you can handle the ropes
yourself! You enjoy having a real linger
in the pie! You are a genuine sailor! I
have no fancy for great lords who
imagine they must always keep their
hands in their pockets, and who would
feel themselves dishonored if they even
touched a deck chair ! "

When the lunch hour came the Kaiser
himself waited on his guests, passed
dishes of pastry, and poured out the port
wine.

" I love the sea passionately," he said,
" even more than I love my army. I
never feel completely free, except when
I am at sea, liberated from all constraint.
If it were possible for me I would pass
my whole life on the water."

His noble guests noticed that he spoke
very harshly to his Generals and the of-
ficers on duty about him; in fact, his
orders were sharp as the crack of a
whip, in true Prussian style; but, when-
ever he spoke to an inferior or a simple
sailor, his tone became affable and good-
natured. He loves to chat and joke with
them, but there is always something
artificial, an ill-concealed condescension
in his tone. During the race two of the
Meteor's crew fell into the water. The
Kaiser himself took a hand in rescuing
them, and received them in his arms, one
of which, with withered tendons, was
somewhat awkward in holding them. At
last they were standing before him. He

passed his hands over their bodies, like
a Custom House officer making a search,
to press the water out of their jerseys;
then he said to them, " Now*, go at once
and get dried; and don't think any more
about the race! " But a member of the
Kaiser's household, a great dignitary of
the empire, seeing him thus occupied
with his sailors, bent toward the Duke's
ear and said to him laughingly:

"When a General falls off his horse,
the Emperor never turns back. *
At heart he does not love his officers so
exclusively as is supposed. Abroad, he
is thought of as ceaselessly in councils of
war with his helmet and his sword, sur-
rounded by his General Staff. But in
reality he only loves his lords, and feels
at his ease only with them. And then he
detests officials. Sometimes I have the
greatest trouble getting him to confer
with the diplomatists."

That evening, in the cabin of the im-
perial yacht, the Emperor himself con-
firmed this view. Comfortably stretched
on his cushions, he said :

" France has not always been quite
lucky in recruiting her Ambassadors. I
have never had closer relations with any
one than with the Duke de Noailles.
When he was at Berlin, I used to come
to his house at 8 o'clock in the morning,
and go straight to his room. He was- still
in bed. Then I used to sit on the edge
of his bed and we chatted for hours. It
was delightful and in the best possible
tone. We were comrades. The Naval
Attache was J. I have a great affec-
tion for him. He was a real friend of

1090 CURRENT HIST,ORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

mine, and I felt as if we were fellow-
countrymen; on the sea, at least, we are;
we are compatriots of the sea.

" I do not think," he went on, " that
many Frenchmen who have come into
close relations with me have gone away
with a favorable impression. But then
there are very few with whom relations
are so pleasant as with you! * * * I
tell you this in all sincerity, because I
think it." * * *

The Emperor went on to speak of
Franco-German relations. This was some
time before the war. Taking the devil by
the horns, he said:

" Perhaps in France there are doubts
as to my sincere desire for good relations
with her. But there you are wrong. It
is a constant and clearly formed wish.
Naturally, not with M. Delcasse. But you
understood the necessity of depriving
him of power. If you did this, it was not
to please me, I can easily believe, but to
get rid of a man who wanted to correct
the map of Europe without having the
gift for it. What reasonable man would
today think of forming a European
coalition against us, without making
himself ridiculous? For such a Utopian
idea to be possible, it would be necessary
for Germany to have incurred the hatred
of all nations. * * * "

The Kaiser then talked about the capi-
tal of France : " My sons are very fond
of Paris. They come home full of en-
thusiasm. I am even convinced that it
would not do to let them go there too
often.

" It seems that they believe in France
that I visit Paris from time to time. It
is a fable that amuses me. I myself
ought to know whether I go there or not.
In what disguise — with a false beard and
black spectacles? No, I have not been in
Paris since 1886. I stayed then at the
Hotel M. — , in the Rue de la Paix, a
quiet little hotel, very well kept. Is it
still in existence? It was my mother
who advised me to go there. * * * "

Then the - Emperor's mind turned to
\vhat Frenchmen thought and said of
him:

" You say in France that I am the-
p.trical and that I change my uniform
ten times a day for anything or for

nothing. But this is the criticism of dem-
ocrats who understand nothing of the
obligations of the head of the State in
a monarchy. My view is that every re-
nunciation of representative stage set-
ting is equivalent for a sovereign, and
even for any power, to a moral abdica-
tion. Do not your priests wear a special
costume, and your Judges, and your
Academicians? At the Assizes your
Judges take their seats in red rol5es, and
no one finds that ridiculous. With you
it is a last remnant of the requirements
of other days which are still those of to-
day. You will tell me that this is not so
in America and that things go none the
worse there on that account; but Amer-
ica has no historical tradition of de-
corum, and it is made up of several na-
tions, while France is the most unified
in tradition of all countries. You have a
recent past, which was very decorative.
These things do not vanish in a day. The
disappearance of pomp is a very bad
thing for you. Believe me, it is neces-
sary to fill the eyes of the people. * * *"

That evening, in the smoking room of
the yacht, the Emperor said:

" You have not yet asked me, my Lord
Duke, how I consider the question of
Alsace-Lorraine. This astonishes me, for
it is the chief preoccupation which I can
read on the lips of every Frenchman I
come in contact with. Well, it is without
doubt a very serious question! What do
you wish me to do about it? I was
eleven years old at the time of the
Franco-Prussian war, I found the situa-
tion there already formed, and formed by
the blood of our soldiers. I should like
to have a Frenchman put himself in my
place for a single day.

" I have often meditated on this ques-
tion, which preoccupies me more than
you would believe. But I have not dis-
covered the solution; you can well under-
stand that I am responsible before the
nation for this legacy which I inherited
and that I cannot act without weighing
all my duties toward every one con-
cerned.

" I have thought of erecting Alsace
into a Duchy; I have consulted com-
petent men, the distinguished men of the
province. Do you know what they

THE KAISER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD FRANCE

1091

answered me ? ' A Duchy with a Prus-
sian Prince? Never!' What then? A
distinguished man of the province, whom
I should create Duke? Once again, No.
They told me that he would be suspected
and that he would incur the hatred of all
the other families.

" I myself would never have annexed
Alsace-Lorraine; I should have demanded
indemnity of another kind. Today we
should be friends. But what I want is
not a salute with the hat; what I want
is a warm grasp of the hand! * * *

" I have done everything in my power
to come to a good understanding with
your Government. Everything would
be possible, if it did not ceaselessly fear
opposing factions who would exploit the
patriotic chord to upset it at the slight-
est open advance.

"What would you have, then? We
shall never do anything. Consider that
in ten years our position will be still
stronger, if we admit that we shall have
nearly eighty millions of population.
No one understands your scruples better
than I do. I have a high appreciation
for your patriotism, but I am certain
that all intelligent men see clearly that
an understanding between us would
make us the masters of the world. * * * "

The meaning of the last phrase is,
of course, that the combined fleets of
Germany and France might be able to
beat the English fleet, making Wilhelm
II. "Admiral of the Atlantic " in reality.
Later, he pulled every string in an en-
deavor to bring England to combine with
him against France, still with the same
ambition to be " master of the world."

A few months before the war, says
M. Bac, Kaiser Wilhelm learned that a
portrait bust of him, by a famous sculp-
tor, had been refused by the Paris Salon.
Shortly after this, while he was at Weis-

baden, chatting in the anteroom of his
box at the city theatre with some
Frenchmen, he said to them:

" Decidedly, there is nothing more to
be done with you! You will have noth-
ing to do with me — not even in effigy! "

And his Majesty repeated, with a
nervous irritation, in which could be per-
ceived bitter, almost childish disappoint-
ment: "Not even in effigy! "

EDITORIAL NOTE.— In curious con-
firmation of the foregoing are the words
of an eminent neutral who visited Berlin
last July, and who tells of a conversation
in which the Kaiser commented on the
" British theory " that he was responsible
for the war, saying :

" It is curious how this theory seems
to fascinate my enemies. Yet, the people
who accuse me of having caused the war
are the very people who previously testi-
fied to the earnestness of my desire for
peace."

He paused a moment, then continued
in grave tones:

" I do not envy the man who has the
responsibility for this war upon his con-
science. I, at least, am not that man.
I think history will clear me of that
charge although I do not suppose that
history will hold me faultless. In a
sense every civilized man in Europe must
have a share in the responsibility for this
war, and the higher his position the
larger his responsibilities. I admit that
and yet claim that I acted throughout in
good faith and strove hard for peace,
even though war was inevitable.

" Why do you neutrals always talk
about German militarism and never
about Russian despotism, the French
craving for revenge or English treach-
ery? I think the next generation will
strike a more just balance in apportion-
ing the blame."

How the Kaiser Was Forced to Begin
- f " 1 the World War

By Paul Albert Helmer

Directing Editor of Nouvelles de France

This study of " The Responsibility of the Pan-Germanist League for the War of the
Nations " is the work of one of the most brilliant intellects of France. It was originally de-
livered by the author as a lecture in the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, Paris, and has
been specially translated for CURRENT HISTORY. In its originality of thought and its massing
of evidence it must rank with the most important essays that have yet appeared on the
European war.

SOME months ago the German
journals reported to us an im-
pressive scene. Before a hillock
which covered the bodies of Ger-
man soldiers fallen in the terrible com-
bats in Flanders, William II. had halted
— the prey of a lively emotion — and, after
a moment of silent meditation, he had
cried out:

"I call God to witness, I swear it: I
have not wished that! " (" Ich habe das
nicht gewolltl ")

What did this cry which the German
gazettes have spread throughout the en-
tire world, which German propaganda
has exploited by reproducing it on il-
lustrated cards, distributed with pro-
fusion, even in the prisoners' camps,
signify ?

Our enemies saw in it a loyal protesta-
tion of the innocence of the German Em-
pire, cornered and driven to war by the
malevolence of its enemies; among us
and among our friends, many have seen
in it the supreme hypocrisy of a man
whose frivolous caprice had unchained on
the entire world the most formidable
catastrophe which history has recorded.
The Kaiser would have repeated once
more the legend of the concerted attack
of the Allies, jealous of the greatness of
Germany, against an empire strong and
enterprising to which the future reserved
a destiny of power, of triumph, of glory.
Recollecting the factitious and theatrical
character of the anterior manifestations
of William II., many saw in his attitude
only a new melodramatic scene played by
the imperial Lohengrin.

In my opinion the sense of these words

is quite different. Give me your confi-
dence for a few moments, I pray, even
though you shall hear me say that I be-
lieve in the sincerity of the Kaiser, that
I take literally his words, " Ich habe das
nicht gewollt! " that, in a word, I believe
truly that the Emperor of Germany, Will-
iam of Hohenzollern, second and last of
that name, is not the principal re-
sponsible author of this war.

And if today I dare to tell you my
sentiment, the opportuneness of which
may appear doubtful at first sight, it
is because it is necessary that on the
morrow of victory, on the sacred day
for the settlement of accounts, we should
know how to find and chastise the truly
guilty; that in place of the wolf which
we wish to exterminate we should not
be satisfied with an expiatory sheep,
which, perhaps, might easily be aban-
doned to us.

Let us search then in the place where
our principal enemies are; let us weigh
the guilt of each and establish in a pre-
cise manner the responsibilities. Seen
closely and in detail events often take
on a different aspect; battles which have
been able to escape the distant or inat-
tentive observer give the means of dis-
tinguishing between those who have pre-
pared, decided, and unchained the war,
and others who, after having made long
efforts to resist belligerent tendencies,
have resigned themselves to it through
impotence or want of character.

GERMANY'S WORLD POLICY

It was on the 18th of January, 1896,
that, with a theatrical ceremony in the
throne room of the castle of Berlin, with

HOW THE KAISER WAS FORCED TO BEGIN THE WAR 1093

his hand on the flag of the First Regi-
ment of the Guard, William II. pro-
claimed his " Weltpolitik," the world-
wide policy of the empire. Henceforth
Germany wished to be present every-
where. In all countries, no matter on
what point of the globe, no conflict was
to be adjusted unless German interests
were made productive, unless the empire
gave its assent and obtained advan-
tages or compensations.

But at this moment William II. had
already held the helm of the empire for
almost six years, and the policy which
he had followed up to then was not that
which suddenly he proclaimed on the
day of the twenty-fifth anniversary of
the foundation of the empire. The ten-
dencies which the empire had pursued in
the epoch of Chancellor Caprivi, and
which the adversaries had attacked
under the name of " Caprivism," because
they dared not yet attack the person of
the Emperor, had been a policy of con-
ciliation and of peace, a policy of polite-
ness, of concessions, and of good under-
standing; of good customs relations with
the States of Central Europe bordering
on Germany; a policy of colonial con-
cessions as regards Russia and England,
which are practical countries; a policy
of simple telegrams, of felicitations, or
of condolences with regard to France,
which was satisfied with its disinterest-
edness. This effort of international ap-
peasement had its day of triumph when
William II. inaugurated the Kiel Canal
in 1895, and traversed it at the head of
the representatives of the navy of the
entire world, even of the French fleet.

In fact, no power had been able to re-
sist the graciousness of the Kaiser.
From what quarter, then, could have
come a serious opposition to his designs,
since even in France great journals were
already publishing inquiries upon the re-
ception they would tender him in Paris
if the fancy struck him to visit the ex-
position of 1900? I cast neither eulogy
nor reproach at any one; I state a fact
which is not contestable: The policy of
concessions and of advances, the policy
of amiability, and — let us say the word
— of dupery inaugurated by William II.
met no resistance in foreign countries.

Had it continued, little by little, Europe
and the entire world would have passed
under German hegemony. In order to
obtain universal domination, Germany
had no need of a war.

RISE OF OPPOSITION

But a people cannot change its state
of soul. The Germany of Bismarck could
not disown its origins. Created by iron
and blood, it could not live in peace.
Prussia, which was liberated by the war
of 1813, which had imposed itself on
Germany by the wars of 1864 and of
1S66, and on all Europe by the war of
1870; Germany, which had realized its
unity by violence, which had appropri-
ated the wealth of others by force, which
maintained its conquests under the yoke
and threatened every moment to defend
them by arms, Prussia and Germany
could not accommodate themselves to a
policy of condescension and concession.

Before William II. rose the partisans
of Bismarck dismissed. They proclaimed
themselves the holders of the national
traditions, the continuers of the work of
the great epoch, the trustees of the last
wills of the founders of the empire.

One day, among his numerous pacific
manifestations, William II. had affirmed
that his " Christian conscience " would
not permit him to assume the responsi-
bility of a war. Those who rose against
him were opposed to this mystic concep-
tion and formed the Pan-Germanist
League, which, in contradiction with this
" Christian conscience," assumed to per-
sonify the "national conscience of the
German people," ("das Gewissen des
deutschen Volkes.")

Then, on the day when William II.
proclaimed his worldwide policy, he had,
for the first time, abdicated his " Chris-
tion conscience " before that which was
imposed on him as the "national con-
science of the German people."

TRADITIONS OF BISMARCK
The Pan-Germanist League, when it di-
rected the German Empire toward world-
wide imperialism, availed itself of the
traditions of Bismarck. But among these
it had recognized only the principle of
force, the employment of threats, the
reign by fear. It had not seen the limits

1094 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

which Bismarck himself had imposed.
The Iron Chancellor had brought suc-
cesses almost unhoped for; but, without
letting himself be carried away by the
most brilliant victories, he had known
how to be moderate, and, if he had wiped
out some, he had adroitly managed oth-
ers. Very harsh toward Denmark in
1864, inexorable toward the little German
States in 1866, he had been very liberal
after the conclusion of peace with Aus-
tria. He was preparing for his decisive
effort against France, which he laid low
in 1870.

And then he reserved all his strength
for us, he followed with rancor and im-
placable hatred our country, which he
wished to prevent from retrieving itself.
Voluntarily limiting himself in his in-
ternational action, measuring his means,
coldly weighing the possbilities, refusing
to play once more on a map the gain
of three successful wars, he believed
he had done enough for Germany,
in the last years of his life, if he
defended the empire created by him
against the chastisement which his
last abuse of victory deserved. France,
even though conquered and mutilated,
was still in herself alone a sufficient ob-
ject of Bismarck's fear and resentment.
This willing moderation, in his opinion,
committed Germany to a disinterested
policy in all other conflicts. On the sub-
ject of the Carolines he willingly accept-
ed arbitration with Spain, and for the
Balkans, for which Germany today is
putting all Europe to fire and blood, he
had had this scornful saying, that " they
were not worth the bones of a single
Pomeranian grenadier."

Nothing, therefore, was further from
the idea of Bismarck than the worldwide
policy imposed by the Pan-Germanist
League, which nevertheless made use of
his name.

PAN-GERMANIST PROGRAM

As soon as the Pan-Germanist League
had imposed on William II. the official
proclamation of German imperialism it
began to develop its program in all its
details. It established, continent by con-
tinent and country by country, the Ger-
man interests.

It demanded all the countries where

the population speaks the German
tongue; the Swiss cantons, the Baltic
provinces, the German countries of Aus-
tria. But it went further : linguistic and
ethnographical theories gave it a pretext
to identify with the Germans all the peo-
ples whose idiom is of Germanic origin —
the Hollanders of the Low Countries and
the Boers of South Africa, the Flemings
of Belgium, and all the Scandinavian peo-
ples.

In foreign countries where German
colonists had established themselves,
whether they preserved the German na-
tionality, whether they repudiated it in
appearance, their interests justified a
continuous surveillance of the policy of
these countries by the German Empire.
Thus Germany reserved to herself the
right to intervene in the United States, in
Brazil, in Argentina, in Southern Russia.
And the mere possibility of creating Ger-
man interests, in a future more or less
near, called the attention of the Pan-
Germanists to Turkey, and then to Mo-
rocco.

Never in history, since powerful States
aspired to the domination of the world,
had an imperialistic program been devel-
oped with as much precision and method,
with as much arrogance and impudence,
as in the Pan-Germanist pamphlets at the
end of the nineteenth century. But why
has it been necessary to await in France
almost twenty years to take cognizance
of this appeal to universal battle for Ger-
manism-Kampf urns Deutschtum? Why
were we not interested in the danger
which the meddling of Germany in the
affairs of all countries caused to circulate
in the entire world?

THE SEEDS OF CONFLICT

The Pan-Germanists did not confine
themselves to the domain of theory.
They imposed their demands on the Gov-
ernment and demanded the immediate
realization of them. The Pan-German-
ists called for a ringing manifesto in
favor of the Boers; William II. tele-
graphed to President Kruger and caused
misfortune to England.

The Pan-Germanists demanded inter-
vention in Samoa and the Caroline
Islands; Germany intervened against the
United States and acquired these islands.

HOW THE KAISER WAS FORCED TO BEGIN THE WAR 1095

The Pan-Germanists demanded a port
in the Far East; Germany occupied
Kiao-Chau.

The Pan-Germanists demanded an
action in Turkey; William II. visited the
Orient, proclaimed himself at Damascus
the friend of the Sultan and of all the
Mohammedans and caused trouble for
France.

The Pan-Germanists protested against
the Badeai ordinances in Austria; Ger-
many increased its army corps on the
frontiers of Bohemia and obtained the
abrogation of these ordinances.

That was a good deal to do in five
years, but in the eyes of the Pan-Ger-
manists it was not enough. What was
Europe waiting for?

When, at the end of the Middle Ages,
the countries revolted in Germany, they
naively inscribed on their standard: "We
wish to be the enemies of the whole
world." Since the war of the Rustauds,
Germany had learned nothing. On the
threshold of the twentieth century, the
Pan-Germanists still wished to be the
enemies of all the world.

But in face of this menace openly pro-
claimed, before the challenges thrown
in turn in the face of England, of the
United States, France, China, and Aus-
tria, should the powers friendly to peace
not have combined? Was it not neces-
sary from the beginning to resist this
turbulent and invading spirit which
threatened the whole world? Now, far
from understanding one another and or-
ganizing against the day when a war
should be precipitated by Germany, the
powers knit themselves still closer with
the German Empire, and it was at the
head of an army composed of all the
civilized nations that Field Marshal Wal-
dersee made his triumphal entry into
Peking. On that day, by its careless-
ness and unskillfulness, Europe blinded,
had committed the fault which we
cruelly expiate today.

IMPERIALISM OF KULTUR

It was not Europe which arrested Ger-
many, following the war with China. It
was William II., who, having seen blood
flow, cried out for the first time: " Ich
habe das nicht gewollt." He repudiated
the clamorous and aggressive policy and

disowned Pan-Germanism. Henceforth no
longer by diplomatic competitions, by
threatening interventions, by affirma-
tions of imaginary interests or by covet-
ing of new territories was the supremacy
of Germany to be manifested. German
imperialism in the future was to be
limited to the things of the mind. He
formulated in one of his discourses a new
principle:

"Very far beyond the seas our lan-
guage is spread," said he, " very far is
stretched the flight of our science and of
our learned investigations; there is no
work in the domain of modern studies
which is not printed in our language,
science produces no -idea which is not
utilized by us to be copied afterward by
the other nations. There is the world-
wide empire of which the Germanic mind
is ambitious."

These words resound like a blasphemy
in the temple of French science, where I
have the honor to repeat them to you.

In this new program which William II.
established at the beginning of the cen-
tury he abandoned the worldwide policy
which had engaged the empire in diplo-
matic conflicts, in violent press com-
paigns, and in a distant warlike expedi-
tion. The new imperialism which he pro-
claimed may appear to us today as a
bloody irony, a pretention which excites
our most violent indignation; William II.
claimed for Germany a civilizing mis-
sion; he proclaimed the imperialism of
Kultur.

THE CHALLENGE TO FRANCE

The Pan-Germanists were not the men
to allow themselves to be driven from
German political life. From the year
1902 the Kaiser again saw in front of
him the spectre of the "national con-
science of the German people." Through
the mouth of its President, the Professor
of Medicine Hasse, the league complained
of being neglected by the representatives
of the official policy. " They disown us
when they can," said he. " And that is
natural, since we always demand an
active policy."

During the Summer of 1903, M. Class,
a lawyer in Mayence, who was then
brought to the attention of the Pan-Ger-

1096 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

manists, and who, today, is the Presi-
dent of the league, established at the
Congress of Plauen the " Schedule of the
New Course."

In order to investigate the mistakes
committed in the foreign policy of the
empire and to fix precisely the re-
sponsibilities, he studied the changes
that had befallen the worldwide position
of Germany since the fall of the Great
Chancellor. The German policy, for a
dozen of years, had been exhibited only
by oratorical manifestations and half-
finished doings. " As soon as they had
run up against opposition," said M. Class,
" they had recoiled so as not to quarrel
or in order not to disown the pacific
declarations so often repeated." This love
of peace at any price, this seeking of the
friendship of foreign powers, had robbed
the empire of the universal prestige with
which it was surrounded in the time of
Bismarck.

Formerly, in order to impose the
" worldwide policy," the Pan-Germanist
League had directed its criticisms against
the Chancellor and what it called Capriv-
ism. In 1903, M. Class no longer deigned
to attack the Chancellors who for twelve
years had succeeded one another. These
brave officials had merely executed the
orders of their master. It was William
II. himself whom he declared openly re-
sponsible for the downfall of Germany.
Between the Emperor and the league,
hostilities had opened.

The campaign directed against the pac-
ifism of William II. was pursued during
the whole year of 1903. In February,
1904, once more, the committee of the
league declared :

" The policy of realities is not the pol-
icy that seeks to attain its object without
hurting any one. What is necessary for
the normal and continuous development
of the empire must, if essential, be found
and imposed at the price of a conflict."

And just then the league believed that
it could realize much on condition of not
fearing a conflict.

CONCENTRATING ON FRANCE

Formerly the worldwide policy of the
empire had attacked all the powers ; Ger-
many bad wished to be "the enemy of

everybody." This time the Pan-German-
ists confined themselves to a single na-
tion, and they had selected it with care so
as to have all the trumps against it — a
nation, said they, old and fallen, incapa-
ble of making war, a nation to which
England would not come in aid — for Ed-
ward VII. was beguiling it with smooth
words — a nation which Russia, its ally,
would not assist — for she was occupied in
the Far East — France, finally, which
then had an imperative, absolute, unques-
tionable need of peace. From France,
said the Pan-Germanist League, we could
at this moment obtain all. Beginning
with the second half of 1903, the whole
Pan-Germanist action was concentrated
against France.

Germany needed colonies, not so much
to sell in them the products of her indus-
try as to establish there the surplus of
her population. The empire must have a
colony for settlement, of vast territories
toward which the flow of the German
emigrants should be directed. No coun-
try would be better adapted to that pur-
pose, according to the sayings of the
league, by its climate, by its fertility, by
the richness of its subsoil, by its geo-
graphical situation, than Morocco. It
was in the Shereefian empire that Ger-
many was to follow up the success of
1871 and assure the " normal and contin-
uous " development of the State created
by Bismarck.

Now, the French influence was at
that time established in Morocco. The
moment had come, said the league, to
occupy a part of it for Germany and to
force France to quit there under the
threat of war.

The Pan-Germanists openly discussed
this double aim in their meetings and
in their press. But this campaign,
which lasted more than a year, stirred
no one in France. No one noticed it. It
was like a thunderbolt when, after a
year and a half, in March, 1905, after
the fall of Port Arthur, the taking of
Mukden and the defeat of Tsoushima,
William II. landed at Tangier.

THE TANGIER EPISODE

At Tangier, William II. had checked
the policy of the French Republic in
Morocco. France preserved the memory

HOW THE KAISER WAS FORCED TO BEGIN THE WAR 1097

of it as an affront so much the more
painful as, in reality — the Pan-German-
ists were right — she was then in no
state to take up the challenge. But what
matters today is not what the French
thought of the incident of Tangier. It
is, on the contrary, what the Germans
said and wrote about it.

The Pan-Germanist campaign, after
having persisted for eighteen months,
had forced William II. to get busy with
Morocco. But he was far from having
done what the league had demanded of
him.

The league had desired to make profit
out of the necessities of a single occa-
sion to aggrandize the empire; it wanted
realizations, a tangible success. William
II. did not wish to throw himself on
France as a robber leaps upon a trav-
eler in the corner of a wood. Since he
would not let himself be tempted by the
profit of the booty, it was necessary, in
order to make him move, to shake be-
fore him the red rag of the " encircle-
ment of Germany." And truly believing
that he was defending the empire
against a circle of enemies which M.
Delcasse and Edward VII. were seeking
to form around him, the Kaiser neglected
the real and practical end which alone
counted in the eyes of the Pan-German-
ists. He made a speech besides, after so
many others, when they had wanted an
ultimatum addressed to France under
threat of immediate war. Always hesi-
tating, wavering between^ the interest
of Germany and the fear of conflicts,
he had taken an attitude odious in the
eyes of the French, ridiculous in -the
eyes of the Germans.

He had treated France roughly, hurt
her self-respect, opposed her projects,
and yet he wished to conciliate her and
had protested his pacific intentions. Be-
fore departing he had an interview with
the Ambassador of France. Upon em-
barking at Hamburg he repudiated all
the great conquerors of history. In
passing before the Coast of Brittany, in
order to please the little and the big chil-
dren of France, he sent a telegram to
Mme. Jules Verne. In Lisbon first, and
on the morrow at Tangier, on the Bal-
earic Islands and in Italy, he protested

his attachment to peace. The Pan-Ger-
manists were right; at the moment of
offering an affront to France, all this
was ridiculous.

But again he had been awkward. In-
stead of allowing the Chancellor to act,
he had advanced himself and, in his
speech, had said what it was not neces-
sary to say. The Pan-Germanists de-
manded possession of a part of Morocco,
the acquisition of a territory under the
German dominion. Now, William II. had
proclaimed the independence of the Sul-
tan and the integrity of the Shereefian
empire. The day when Germany wished
to occupy the Moroccan coast it would be
necessary to begin by disowning the
solemn words of the Emperor of Ger-
many.

This is what the Germans thought of
the landing at Tangier. Within a few
days— in April 1905 — a Hamburg journal
used the phrase which will remain the
judgment of history. In the midst of
reproaches for having allowed a sure
prey to escape, it declared it a crime for
William II. to have awakened France.

"THE SHARPENED SWORD"
The official diplomacy of the empire
tried to recover what William II. had
lost. In the Spring of 1905 there was
the resignation of M. Delcasse, in the
Summer of 1905 there were laborious
pourparlers to establish the program of
the Algeciras Conference. France,
awakened, knew how to stand firm. But,
when the agreement was finally estab-
lished, William II. had the unconscionable
hardihood — for this man is not intelligent
— to make new advances to • France.
Through the voice of the Petit Parisien
and of the .Temps, Chancellor von Biilow
had to affirm once more the friendly dis-
positions of the Emperor. As on the
field of battle in Flanders, William II.
declared : " Ich habe das nicht gewollt."
France was dignified. The Matin re-
plied by revelations touching the resig-
nation of M. Delcasse. Germany's acts
had never corresponded with her protes-
tations of friendship. William II. no
longer inspired confidence. If France
had not at first understood the emptiness
of his politeness, the vanity of his ad-

1098 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

vances, the childishness of his telegrams
on the day when she felt herself treated
roughly, and was conscious of the great-
est humiliation suffered since 1870, she
no longer allowed herself to be decoyed
with words.

William II. saw the policy of cajolery
and of stupid civilities which he had so
assiduously pursued with regard to the
French definitely miscarry. This disillu-
sion inspired the famous speech in which,
full of rage, he appealed to " dry powder
and Uie sharpened sword." And these
words resound as a homage rendered to
the pride of France.

GERMANY'S " ISOLATION "

At Algeciras, where the Pan-German-
ists had wished to overwhelm France,
Germany found herself, following the
hesitations of the Emperor, confronted
by a union of all the great powers. But
it was not France which had caused Ger-
many's isolation. The encirclement, the
idea of which ha.unted the brain of Will-
iam II., was the natural reply of all hon-
est and loyal peoples to the dilatory and
quibbling proceedings of Germany.

There remained a last awkwardness to
commit, and William II. did not fail to
commit it. He noisily averred the isola-
tion of Germany in a resounding tele-
gram.

Again Germany was the " enemy of
everybody." So true is it that she will
always bring against her a union of all
the nations that have hearts. It is a case
of the imminent justice of history.

THE KAISER UNPOPULAR

Dissatisfaction with William's acts
was universal. The criticisms which he
continually heard, the reproaches which
the best patriots were offering him, at
length decided the Kaiser to reply direct-
ly to the Pan-Germanists. In a discourse
on Dec. 8, 1906, he made an appeal to the
unity of the nation and asked the people
to have faith in the future, not to give
way to criticism, and not to doubt those
who govern. " I do not want pessimists,"
said he. " He who is not suitable for the
work, let him go away and let him seek
elsewhere, if he wishes, a better Father-
land."

The Pan-Germanists took up the chal-

lenge. The word "pessimist " —
" Schwarzscher " — became a mark of
glory. The more ardent one's patriotic
sentiments, the more one enjoyed having
the name of the Kaiser's disapproval
applied to one's self. Besides the entire
press, which replied to William II. and
justified the discontent of the nation,
resounding pamphlets openly attacked
the Emperor. Count Reventlow, whose
name in the German press of today still
represents the most jingoistic spirit,
summed up all the bad temper of the
Pan-Germanists in his book, " William
II. and the Byzantines."

From year to year the criticisms had
become more fiery. Between the Em-
peror and his people there was an abyss.
A conflict was inevitable; it came in the
Autumn of 1908. Germany had just
yielded in the Casablanca affair. Again
it was the Emperor whom the German
Nation reproached for not having dared
to resist the calm and decided attitude
of M. Clemenceau. But suddenly these
criticisms were eclipsed by new invec-
tives more violent than ever. The Daily
Telegraph had just published the famous
interview with the Kaiser.

DEFEAT OF THE EMPEROR

In face of the English people's mis-
trust of Germany, William II. had be-
lieved it to be his duty to address Eng-
land by the voice of a journal. He
affirmed his profound sympathy for his
mother's native land, he recalled that he
had never hesitated to translate her
ideas into deeds; but he added that his
friendship for England was shared in
Germany by only a minority of his com-
patriots.

Indeed, the Pan-Germanist League had
always denounced England as the great
adversary of the future, against whom it
was necessary to be prepared for a life-
and-death struggle. She was the com-
petitor with whom German commerce
was clashing everywhere; it was against
her that Germany was preparing a
formidable fleet. Now it was to this
enemy of tomorrow that the Emperor
had made his protestations of amity, and
he had denounced the underhand ani-
mosity of his compatriots by declaring

HOW THE KAISER WAS FORCED TO BEGIN THE WAR 1099

that his sentiments were only those of a
minority.

Following these facts, five interpella-
tions were addressed to the Chancellor.
Violent reproaches of the Kaiser were
uttered. A Deputy declared in the open
Reichstag that if, instead of William II.,
another had done this he would have
been condemned to penal servitude for
high treason, and no one protested. Noth-
ing could induce the Chancellor to un-
dertake the defense of his sovereign.
Before all Germany in fury, attacked by
all parties, William II. found himself
abandoned by all his Ministers arid
blamed by his Chancellor, Prince von
Biilow.

William II. had humbly to submit; the
" Monitor of the Empire " published a
note declaring that the Chancellor had
transmitted to him the remonstrances of
Parliament, and that the Emperor had
promised to correct his ways in the
future.

There are people who believe — I read
it quite recently in a great French jour*
nal — that William II. was, or is still, the
idol of the German people.

Never in France has a statesman in
office suffered what William II. was
heard to relate in November, 1908. Never
in France have our statesmen been
abandoned by all their partisans; at the
moment of their resignation, the day
of their abdication, or of their downfall
to the very foot of the ladder, they have
always found in France intrepid, gen-
erous defenders.
LESSON OF THE "BLACK WEEK"

William II. had wished to warn the
English. He had affirmed to them his
sympathy, but at the same time he had
cared to put them on guard against the
hostile spirit of the German people. It
was not only some few exalted persons
who saw in England the great enemy
of the future. The Emperor himself had
been willing to give the alarm, and had
denounced the evil disposition of the
great majority of the German people.

And if England could be mistaken
about the warning of the Kaiser, must
not the reception given the interview
throughout the empire been edifying to
the English? What were they waiting

to understand? Why did they need six
years more and the violation of Belgium
to stand up before an enemy who did not
even conceal himself from them?

In a matter of foreign policy, in order
to defend the chauvinistic attitude of
the majority of the nation, all the Ger-
mans united against the Kaiser. The
Conservatives had denied their reaction-
ary principles and their monarchical
faith in order to discuss in Parliament
some statements of the sovereign, the
responsibility of which the Chancellor
declined. The Social Democrats, who cul-
tivated as a product for exportation a
fallacious internationalism, . were the
most violent in branding the Emperor
and his friendship for Great Britain with
a hot iron.

Was not this unanimity of the
Reichstag in November, 1908, a sign of
the true spirit of the German Nation?
Should we not have been forewarned of
that other unanimity, which was dis-
played on the day of aggression and
which astonished the world on the 4th of
August, 1914?

But if we could not count on the
people and Parliament, on whom, then,
could we count to defend in Germany the
idea of peace, and to oppose the jingoistic
pretensions of the Pan-Germanists ?
Could it be on William IP. himself ? What
could his power and authority still be?
DIVINE RIGHT ABANDONED

Royalty by the grace of God, that Di-
vine right which he loved to invoke so
much in mystical discourses, he himself
had renounced when he had not accepted
the resignation of his recreant Chan-
cellor, when he had bowed to the cen-
sure of the Reichstag and piteously
promised to be more reserved in the
future, renouncing all personal policy.
Before the threat of battle with the Ger-
man chauvinists he had recoiled. He
wanted no conflict: "Ich habe das nicht
gewollt." On that day his spirit of con-
ciliation was surely what was probably
always his attachment to peace — cow-
ardice.

I pass over Agadir and the questions
raised by the Balkan wars. I do so with
regret; for I do not like to pass in silence
an epoch in which the Post of Berlin

1100 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

openly addressed the Emperor as a
"valorous poltroon."

THE YEAR OF SACRIFICES
For five years William II. had endured
violence, and had remained in humble and
modest retirement. The year 1913 ap-
peared propitious to him for a reconcilia-
tion with the German people. The cen-
tennial celebrations of 1813 would per-
mit him, he believed, to communicate with
the nation in the memories of history.
His own jubilee, after twenty-five years
of reign, and the marriage of his only
daughter, should they not be, in a mo-
narchical country, an occasion for rejoic-
ing by the entire people?

In March, 1813, the King of Prussia,
Frederick William III., had signed the
manifesto of Breslau, calling the Prus-
sian people to arms against Napoleon.
William II. had a coin minted in com-
memoration of this act. The King was
seen on it surrounded by men of the peo-
ple, and around the edge ran this in-
scription: "The King called, and all, all
ran to him."

The Pan-Germanists immediately de-
nounced this attempt to forestall, for the
house of Hohenzollern, the merit of the
rising against Napoleon. The German
press told the Kaiser that history af-
firmed the contrary. Frederick William
III. had to be forced to sign the mani-
festo; all, all had called, and the King,
far from running to them, had yielded
only hesitatingly. The jubilee of 1913
was to be therefore a festival of the Ger-
man people, and not of Kings and
Princes.

They will speak more clearly yet dur-
ing the course of the year.

William II. did not yet understand that
he must continue to be silent. In a dis-
course in which he had recalled the sacri-
fices which the Prussian people had made
in 1813, he thought that he could risk an
allusion to the sacrifices which the Ger-
man people were about to undertake
again in consequence of the new military
law and of the famous war tax.

Misfortune followed from this. Whose
fault was it if the year 1913 was a year
of sacrifices? they demanded, and M.
Paul Liman, who is considered in Ger-

many the best biographer of William II.,
answered this question by an act of ac-
cusation against the Kaiser:

" We may trace the history of the last
quarter of a century on a Byzantine
groundwork of gold," said he. " We may
quite glorify what has been done since
the resignation of Bismarck; the fact
remains that the year of the jubilee has
become a year of sacrifices. The appeal
of the Emperor has asked of the nation
what only the hardest misery and the
extreme necessity which existed a hun-
dred years ago could justify. He has,
therefore, again destroyed the legend
which attributes to the living sovereign
all the wisdom and an uninterrupted
series of successes, until the day when
history imposes on future generations the
duty of engraving the truth, No, we
have not gone from success to success,
we have not daily climbed new heights;
we have remained epigenesists, and, com-
pared with our fathers, a generation of
small people." The Germans, if they
decorate for the jubilee, are honoring the
tomb of their most beautiful hopes. Also
" we must examine the mistakes of the
last twenty-five years and try to find
the answer to this question: Have we
truly suffered a second Jena or an Aus-
terlitz, since it is necessary again to de-
mand sacrifices which formerly only the
victories of Napoleon had imposed on the
German people? Now, we all know it;
under the reign of William II. we have
made no war; the arms have remained
suspended in the temple of peace. It
is, therefore, his policy," said the Em-
peror's accuser, " which has lost what
today the sword should recover."
A THREAT AGAINST PRINCES
It was in 1913 when these lines ap-
peared in which M. Paul Liman an-
nounced that the sword would have to
repair the failures of the twenty-five
years of the reign of William II. Only
a war could remedy the restlessness
which was felt throughout Germany.
Discontent had become general. An en-
terprising nation, full of energy, proud,
and aspiring to the domination of the
entire world, had found in past years no
sufficient satisfaction, responsive to the
program which, for fifteen years, Pan-

HOW THE KAISER WAS FORCED TO BEGIN THE WAR 1101

Germanism had mirrored before their
eyes.

They caused the responsibility for this
situation to be traced up to William II.,
to his desire to live in good relations
with all the world, and to conciliate an-
tagonisms, even at the price of conces-
sions and capitulations. But all these at-
tacks did not correct the Kaiser.

In the course of the same year, 1913,
he married his daughter to the son of
the Duke of Cumberland. What other
end might this marriage pursue if it was
not reconciliation with the fallen dynasty
of the Guelphs? The question of Han-
over had been settled since 1866. The
Guelph family, excluded from Germany,
was no longer a political power. And it
was in order to reconcile himself with a
pretender without importance that Will-
iam II. renounced the influence of reign-
ing houses through his daughter's mar-
riage. He might have been able by a
more useful alliance to attach to Germany
a new foreign Court like those that we
see today, among the neutrals, pursuing
a Germanophile policy contrary to the
wishes of their peoples.

William II. had seen in this marriage
only the personal and dynastic advan-
tage, not the national utility; he had
remembered a little German State, for a
long time destroyed and suppressed; he
had neglected the needs of the nation and
the empire's prestige in the world. A
new campaign was begun against him.
At its opening the Gazette of the Rhine
and Westphalia put the question clearly.
This is what it wrote:

" We are intoxicated with grandilo-
quent phrases and are praising Germany
with much extravagance at the very mo-
ment when we have fallen back into the
system of the littlex States. But one day
a part of the Bismarckian spirit might
awaken, the desire of greatness and of
unity might again thrill the German
people, and if on that day we see that
the Princes have known in their policy
only the right of the Princes, the little
States, the princely alliances, the life of
the little Courts, then the national tor-
rent might again become democratic as
in 1848, because there would be no
longer any other safety than to wipe out

all the Princes. And then perhaps the
Princes will tremble because of the mis-
takes which their ancestors commit to-
day."

To threaten that the national move-
ment might become democratic and
" wipe out all the Princes " was truly a
singular manner to feast William II. at
the period of the twenty-fifth anniver-
sary of his advent to the throne. But
that proves how deep was the dissension
between him and those who were direct-
ing the chauvinistic drive in the Ger-
man Nation.

THE PAN-GERMANISTS DEMAND A

WAR LEADER

William II. had at length understood
that he would have to efface himself. He
preserved silence after the dedication of
the monument of Leipsic, and when we
recall the exuberance of his eloquence at
the beginning of his reign, we can divine
the mortification to which he had to sub-
mit.

But his effacement was not sufficent
for the leaders of Pan-Germanism.
They openly demanded another man at
the head of the empire, and they could
pee growing from day to day the mani-
fest opposition between the Emperor
and the Crown Prince, whom the chau-
vinists were then pushing forward with-
out believing very much in his talents.

" Every people wishes to be led," de-
clared M. Class to the gathering which
the Pan-Germanist League organized at
the time of the Leipsic festivals. " It
makes its greatest efforts only when the
leaders pursue their ideal with a strong
soul and a firm will. This leadership
thinks in default of us. * * * With
all our vows we call for a chief who
should make us forget the miseries of
the present time. * * * It is men of
character who make history; give a
leader to the present generation of Ger-
mans, and it will show itself worthy of
its fathers. Millions of Germans await
this chief, and with him they would go
forward to internal reforms and exterior
expansion, even if the world were full of
devils."

Let us have no illusions. Even on the
day of its defeat it is not in order to

1102 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

have peace that the German people " will
wipe out its Princes." It is in order to
have the war which it has threatened
them with.

HUNGER FOR NEW TERRITORY

In his discourse, M. Class had precisely
stated the ideal which for long years the
Pan-Germanist League had implanted in
the German soul with systematic insist-
ence and unwearying urgency.

" Here is our program," said he : " The
journey to Versailles is not the end of
the development of the German Empire,
it is merely a resting place; to tell the
truth, it is but the commencement of a
larger grouping of all the Germans of
Central Europe in a unity which may per-
mit them to resist all the tempests of the
future."

But in order to realize this program,
it was necessary to have the courage to
recognize the needs of the hour and to
face even war. The Emperor dares not;
he speaks of sacrifice's, of concessions, of
renunciations.

" At the price of renunciations," de-
clared the President of the Pan-German-
ist League, "we could enjoy the friend-
ship of the entire world. But we are not
willing to and must not renounce.

" Already we hear among all classes
of our people, but especially among the
informed bourgeoisie, this question : Why
are we making immense sacrifices for
our fleet and our army if we do not de-
mand and do not obtain anything? The
Government cannot be mistaken on the
meaning of this question. Our fleet is
powerful enough to make England fear
it; our army is again at the height of
its mission. And under these conditions
should we practice a policy of renuncia-
tion? * * * The hunger for new
territories is characteristic of our period ;
it must be satiated. The necessity of
satisfying it gives to our people a task
which will lead them to a high flight.
The Government will have to thank
Providence for it. The task consists in
working so that this instinctive hunger
for territory, such as exists among the
masses, shall become a conscious and
energetic will, a violent and irresistible
decision to procure for our people what it
needs, for its existence, for its health."

UNANIMITY OF THE PEOPLE

Such was the spirit of the Pan-Ger-
manist League in the year which pre-
ceded the war. Foreign countries were
mistaken regarding the influence which
the Pan-Germanists could have on the
German people and on the decisions of
the Government. Nevertheless, incidents
were repeated from month to month and
were exploited by the chauvinistic press
to excite all the passions of the masses.
Merely with regard to France I could
recall, in the space of twenty months, the
squabbles at Nancy, the tour -of France
by the Zeppelin which had to land at
Luneville, the incessant campaign of lies
against the Foreign Legion, the prepara-
tion of numerous papers on the tribula-
tions of the Germans in Morocco, the af-
fair of Saverne, with the insult, not taken
up, to the French flag — and I omit the
rest.

The vote on the military law of 1913
made manifest the complete harmony
which existed between the people and the
Generals : " The nation," stated the Pan-
Germanist organs, " has proved by a
crushing majority that it did not wish
to know anything of the debilitating idea
of an eternal peace."

Indeed, everybody in Germany wanted
war.

The Generals and the Admirals, who
did not wish to have worked for nothing,
dreamed of easy victories and laurels.
They had shared in the direction of the
associations which caused the agitation
in the country; the Pan-Germanist
League, the Navy League, the Army
League, the Association for the Defense
of Germanism in Foreign Countries, and
all the others which, under different de-
nominations or pretexts, spread "among
all the classes the same arrogant and
aggressive spirit.

The professors of the universities and
of the gymnasiums had not ceased for a
century to inculcate ferocious hatred and
contempt for the foreigner. To the exe-
cration of France, hereditary enemy,
they had joined jealousy and hatred
against England, disdain for Russia. The
bad faith of the official teaching — I can
speak of it since I have made all my
studies in the German schools — this bad

WONDERFUL ARTIFICIAL LIMBS

A Soldier Who Has Lost Both Feet, Yet Walks Fairly Well

With Clever Substitutes.

A Mutilated Soldier Who
Follows a Manual Trade
By Means of Artificial
Hands.

A French Soldier Who Has Lost Both Hands, Yet
Can Handle a Cigarette and Salute as Before.

• (Photos from Paul Thompson.)

GERMAN SUBMARINE MINE-LAYER

The "U C 5," Which Was Captured by the British and Is Being Refitted
in an English Drydock. One of the Mines Is Shown in the Inset.

TRANSPORTING THE WOUNDED IN THE ALPS

Italian Red Cross Worker? in the Mountains, Sending Down the
nn an Ingenious Aerial Trolley Line.

HOW THE KAISER WAS FORCED TO BEGIN THE WAR 1103

faith should not have needed the mani-
festo of the '93s to awaken the entire
world.

A WAR OF COVETOUSNESS
The army and navy purveyors saw
only advantages in a war which would
procure for them immense profits. It
was in the country of the Krupps that
we found the most violent Pan-German-
ist journals, the most exacting and the
most influential. The manufacturers and
the merchants, intoxicated with an eco-
nomic flight unequaled in history, counted
on victories and conquests to assure
them raw materials and open to them
new markets. The financiers, rashly en-
gaged in too vast operations of credit,
discounted, after a conflict which would
be short, the rain of gold from new in-
demnities of war. The proletariat classes
themselves saw only the economic pros-
perity of Germany, which would procure
for them higher salaries after a military
triumph of which no one was in doubt.

All parties, all professions, and all
classes of the nation had let themselves
be carried away by the Pan-Germanist
propaganda. How could the Emperor
alone resist it? The conflict existed for
almost twenty-five years and had only
been aggravated; had not monarchial
journals appealed against him, even to
the spectre of a democratic movement?

Carried beyond his intentions by the
worldwide policy of 1896, he had in vain
sought to calm the chauvinistic craze.
Forced to intervene in Morocco, he had
been blamed for the awkwardness of his

journey to Tangier. Attacked in conse-
quence with the utmost violence, he had
seen his authority exhausted in face of
the reproaches of the "pessimists." Villi-
fied by all parties for having dared to
express his sympathy to England, he had
to accept the remonstrances of the
Reichstag and had cowardly submitted
to a traitor Chancellor. Now, after a
reign of twenty-five years, they re-
proached him with having dug "the
grave of the most beautiful hopes " of
Germany, they demanded another leader
than he, they spoke of "wiping out the
Princes." William II., who does not like
contests, preferred war. M. Jules Cam-
bon stated the fact after a visit of the
King of the Belgians to Berlin. On the
22d of November, 1913, the Ambassador
of France telegraphed to the Minister of
Foreign Affairs: "'The Emperor has
ceased to be a partisan of peace."

This conclusion, therefore, forces it-
self upon us: On the day for the settle-
ment of accounts, we do not stop at the
Emperor. William II. is not interesting.
It is the entire German Nation which has
wished the war; the whole nation must
be chastised. The entire nation has
agreed to the worship of force and has
approved the abuse which has been made
of it. The entire nation has shared in
the contempt of right and constantly
coveted her neighbor's goods. An end
must be put to her arrogance, to her
invading spirit, to the encroachments of
her policy.

We must finish it with Germany.

He Is the Master Assassin"

By Joseph Reinaeh

Special Writer of The Paris Figaro

Another French view of the Kaiser's
responsibility, very different from M.
Helmer's, is that of the brilliant historian
and publicist, Joseph Reinaeh:

UNLESS I am greatly mistaken, the
question of the Hohenzollerns will
become more important every day.
It is too vague to speak of destroying
German militarism; we must abolish
German militarism's soul, which is the

House of Hohenzollern, with its feudal
castes and all its birds of prey.

I have shown twenty times that the
war is the personal work of the German
Emperor. Exactly when he began to
premeditate it perhaps even he does not
know. But it is a fact that he had taken
his stand Nov. 6, 1913, when he unbosomed
himself to the Belgian King about " the
necessity of war soon and his certainty of

1104

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

success." It is a fact that this imminent
war was the subject of the famous con-
ference of April, 1914, with Archduke
Franz Ferdinand at Konopstadt. It is a
fact that finally, as accomplice of Aus-
tria's ultimatum to Serbia, he with his
own hand abolished all chance of peace,
refused the conference proposed by Eng-
land and the arbitration of The Hague
Conference offered by the Czar, and de-
clared war upon Russia at the very mo-
ment when the Vienna Government had
welcomed Petrograd's proposals. And
this though every pretext for war had
vanished.

Since the brusque attack through Bel-
gium failed and his bright dream of vic-
tory vanished, since German corpses
strew the earth and the German Nation is
hungry and bears the hatred of the world,
while the horizon is lowering with men-
ace, the German Emperor is afraid, and
says, "I willed it not." Then who did
will it?

His feudal chiefs, his junkers, the
Kronprinz, and his Agrarians willed it,
too, but Germany of the Hohenzollerns
is no oligarchy or democracy. There is
one lord and master, Hohenzollern the
Emperor. It is he who willed, who or-
dered, who began this war. All other ac-
complices— and there are many, Austrian
and German both — cannot alter the fact
that the Kaiser is principally responsible.
His is the first place at the dock of in-

famy where others after him will sit.
He is the master assassin.

The British Premier, Asquith, has also
said this in a solemn declaration before
the House of Commons in connection with •
the case of Captain Fryatt. He said:
" The British Government will bring to
justice the criminals responsible, whoever
they may be and whatever their position."
Surely in such a case the man who is the
author of the system under which the
crime is committed is the most guilty of
all. Who is that man? Over a year ago
in the verdict on the Lusitania a jury of
Kinsale pronounced guilty of wholesale
murder the officers of the submarine, the
German Government, and the Emperor
of Germany. All those Generals, those
officers, those soldiers are only his tools
and accomplices. They struck the blow,
but Nero ordered it. As Mr. Asquith
said, it is he who is chiefly responsible.
He was the arch-criminal.

The conduct of the war is one thing.
We will employ against the Germans
every instrument of destruction they first
employed against us. The conditions of
peace are another. We will not make our
peace a mere truce between two slaugh-
ters. We will insure the future of free
peoples.

But with him who premeditated, willed,
and ordered all these crimes — one
doesn't negotiate with him, one judges
him.

The German Emperor's Appeal to His People

Following is part of an open letter to
the German people, written by Kaiser
Wilhelm late in July within sound of the
enemy's guns on the western front. It
was circulated by the semi-official Wolff
News Agency and printed in all the Ger-
man papers:

rilHE battle is raging, huge beyond
JL aH previous imagination. Rejuve-
nated, perfectly equipped with all
they want, Russia's armies again have
broken against our bulwarks in the east.
This has eased the situation for Italy.
France has experienced a regeneration
in this war of which she hardly believed

herself capable. She has dragged her
dilatory English ally into joining the of-
fensive on the Somme, and whatever in-
ward worth the British Army has it
onw has an abundance of artillery.

The iron hurricane rages against our
brave German men at the Somme.
Negroes and white men come upon us
in wave after wave, in ever fresh storms,
wild and sullen. Everything is at stake.
The ice-cold haberdashers on the Thames
yearn for our holiest things. The health
and life of our women and our children
are menaced. Even neutrals must bear
hunger. Only the depths of the ocean

THE GERMAN EMPEROR'S APPEAL TO HIS PEOPLE 1105

now are open to us. Should we be vic-
torious there is threatening a ' war after
the war ' when the best energies and
power of the nation, now expressed by
its joy in arms, shall be taxed to the
utmost to meet raw force, hatred, and
columny.

What, German people, is your duty in
this Hour ? The army wants no exhorta-
tions. It has fought superhumanly. It
will fight until final victory. But the
people at home — this is their duty: To
suffer in silence, to bear their renuncia-
tions with dignity.

Those at home are not all doing these
things. Not all are alive to the tre-
mendous seriousness of the times. Are
our people at home the same people as
at the beginning of the war ? The writer
fears not. Let us remember that this
is no ordinary rupture of ordinary life.

It is the hour of destiny for our Father-
land, the hour which will influence us
for centuries. We must unite in opposi-
tion to the entire world. We must all co-
operate in the struggle.

Any man or woman who hangs his
or her head or suffers despondency to
enter his soul is guilty now of treason.
Every word of complaint or discourage-
ment is a crime against our fathers,
our sons, and our brothers. Let us show
the greatness of the German Nation. Do
not jeopardize everything by petty
squabbling. It is no time for internecine
strife. But it is time for holding to-
gether. In this hour the best manhood
of the nation, mature men and budding
youths, are presenting their breasts to
the iron hail of the English, Russian,
and African hordes. Everything is at
stake.

The Kaiser's Sermon to Army Chaplains

A chaplain in the German Army, Dr. Ott, recently published in the Vossische
Zeitung the following portions of a speech made by the Kaiser to a congregation
of army chaplains at Main Headquarters:

It is a time of sifting. The world war divides and takes the chaff from the
wheat. You, gentlemen, have to work to teach the German Nation to take things
seriously and to accept the present as a time of trial. It is important to under-
stand that life is a trial. We need practical Christianity to bring our life into
harmony with the personality of our Lord. Live simply according to His acts
and His deeds. Gentlemen, how fascinating and marvelously manifold is this
personality! We have only to study it thoroughly. We must live with the
Lord. Suppose the Lord entered this moment through that door, could we look
into His face? Going to church once a week is not enough. He must become
the ideal of practical life. Determine to live according to the Lord's teaching.
You shall bring before us a vision of God, who now certainly, perhaps as judge,
passes through the world. You must represent Him and show Him to us.

I believe that the men who are now in the trenches will be different men
when they come home. Impress upon them that they must retain in the future
the thoughts which fill them now. Everybody must admit that our nation is
great, that it has without complaint or hesitation sacrificed everything for the
great cause. This inspiration is derived from God. Give the men in the trenches
my greetings, and impress upon them the need for firm reliance on God.

Bethmann Hollweg's Peace Plans

By Maximilian Harden

Editor of Die Zukunft

Maximilian Harden issued another defiance in Die Zukunft June 24, 1916, against the press
censorship in Germany, and incidentally in this attack on the Government defended the Chan-
cellor from the bitter criticism of his political enemy, General Provincial Director Kapp
of Konigsberg. The Chancellor himself answered Dr. Kapp in heated invective in the
Reichstag and is reported to have received a challenge in consequence, but this is not
confirmed.

NOW, for almost two years, speech
and writing have again come
under censorship in the German
Empire; a law is in force
which became sixty-five years old last
Spring, so that it is much further re-
moved from conditions today than it
was in the first hour of its existence
from conditions in the land of Frederick.
The underlying idea is to show the enemy
that sixty-seven million human beings
have the same opinion on big and little
matters; expressions of contrary views
must not be allowed to come to the sur-
face.

In July, 1870, all Germans read this
sentence : " The war is a dynastic war,
undertaken in the interest of the Bona-
parte dynasty, as the war of 1866 was
undertaken in that of the Hoherizollerns.
As the determined opponents on principle
of every dynastic war, as social republic-
ans and members of the international
association of workmen, which, without
discrimination on account of nationality,
combats all oppressors and seeks to unite
all the oppressed in one great brotherly
union, we cannot declare ourselves either
directly or indirectly in favor of this war,
and we refrain, therefore, from voting,
in the hope that all the nations of Europe,
taught by the present unfortunate events,
will do all in their power to regain the
right of making their own decisions, and
do away with the present-day military
and class domination as the cause of all
Governmental and social troubles." This
protest was drawn up by Delegates Lieb-
knecht and Bebel, and the Government of
Prussia and the North German Confed-
eration was not afraid that it would have
a bad effect on public sentiment nor

shake the desire of the South Germans
for union.

This confidence was justified. The
war ended in a German victory, al-
though all the major questions (origin
of the war, possibility of foreign inter-
vention, conduct of operations, right of
plunder in foreign territory, form of
government for France, annexation,
bombardment of Paris) were discussed
in comparative freedom.

Today it is different. And for that
very reason the Chancellor should not
be surprised at the great output of
writing by those under ground. He was
especially bitter in the Reichstag against
two secretly circulated hostile pam-
phlets. " Invention, garbling, foul, ly-
ing, vile instigation, abuse, poisoning of
the people, pirates of public opinion,
slanderers." Rage drowned the counsels
of the preacher Salomo and of Boetius,
the consoler of philosophers, who said
that anger should never jeopardize a
dearly bought reputation for constant
wisdom. * * *

And there is no lack of mistakes in the
two documents denounced by the Chan-
cellor. That of General Provincial Di-
rector Kapp of Konigsberg — head of the
provincial credit associations — shows the
seed of error in its very title, " National
Circles and the Chancellor." * * *

He champions the belief that " the
enemy has not yet been forced to make
peace, though beaten." Whom does he
mean? England? France, who, since
September, 1914, has maintained her
main positions? And can any German
who wishes no self-deception call Russia
a beaten enemy after her big successes
in Armenia and Galicia? By fostering

BETHMANN HOLLWEG'S PEACE PLANS

1107

such mistaken notions the strength of
our people for attack and defense, which,
so far as we can calculate, will exist still
for a very long time, would be lessened.
Herr Kapp parades as truth what has
yet to be proved such, and, standing on
this weak foundation, shouts forth that
the weak will power of the Chancellor is
jeopardizing a triumph which otherwise
we might win. The submarine, he tells
us, is " the deciding weapon." He states
unqualifiedly that it can bring the de-
cision, but fails to state anywhere that
the three Admirals now in favor agree
with the Chancellor that submarine war-
fare must be curtailed. The Chancellor
is accused of allowing " political consid-
erations to overrule military points of
view." Had he achieved the triumph
aforesaid he would have fulfilled what
Clausewitz called the highest duty of a
statesman and acted as Bismarck de-
manded that every conscientious head of
a Government should act.

The Government of the United States,
we are told, has for a long time been
unneutral because it has (just as we did
in every war of these last decades)
allowed the exportation by private firms
of war material, (which it could not have
hindered except by changing the funda-
mental laws of the land.) We are told
that it is our enemy, that it treats Ger-
many like a negro republic, but that it
could not seriously hurt Germany, who
is "financially stronger than all her
foes," should it go over to her enemies.
Everybody has read this sort of thing
in a hundred papers since the day of
the Lusitania, and every unprejudiced
person must at least have suspected that
the public refutation of such statements
is impossible in war time.

The only new thing in this document,
it seems to me, is about the food policy.
• " Fear of the masses of consumers in the
big cities and industrial centres has
forced the Government to a highly un-
fortunate national socialism." An un-
necessary state of affairs. The danger
that the rich man may buy away means
of nourishment from the poor could only
occur, we hear, "if the rich man ate
twenty times as much as he could digest "
— not, likewise, if he stored away enough

to assure himself for six months of the
same degree of good living to which he
had been accustomed in times of peace.
Instead of suppressing trade and intro-
ducing repressive measures against peas-
ants, we hear, artificial organization
("which is really complete disorganiza-
tion and bewilderment of the market")
should be- thrown on the rubbish heap
and unhindered free trade promptly re-
introduced. *

Need exists only because there is
coercion. Free markets would mean
free fixing of prices by supply and de-
mand— the reader begins to believe that
the free trader, Friedrich Kapp, is
speaking, he who, after practicing law
for twenty years in the United States,
returned to the new empire as a con-
verted Forty-Eighter and became the
comrade of Bamberger. But that Kapp,
unlike the general provincial director,
would' not have demanded " stronger
protection of national labor," nor ex-
aggerated appreciation of export trade,
nor plural voting rights for Prussia,
nor the " increase of the voting age."
But he would have appraised the power
of the United States differently, from
better knowledge, and he would have
deliberated longer as to what would
happen in Germany if now, suddenly,
this confession should come from above:
" All the orders issued by us during the
last two years, from Delbriick to
Batocki, were utterly crazy — centralized
purchasing, embargo, fixing of maxi-
mum prices, distribution of rations,
fights against speculation. Wherefore,
beginning tomorrow, the procedure cus-
tomary in time of peace is to be re-
sumed in every market."

Thus would the man from Konigsberg
have it. To follow his lead is to assure
a paradise to the German Nation. After
peace is declared (its terms to be
dictated to Britons, Russians, French-
men, Italians, Belgians, Americans,
Australians, and Japanese) there will
come a "tremendous national growth.
Rivalry and disunion within the land
will be silent; intellectual and political
leaders of our people will disinterestedly
devote themselves, in thought and act,
to the welfare of the Fatherland. It

1108 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

will be wonderful; all that is needed is
faith.

" Germany's mission is to usher in a
new and happy epoch for humanity."
Whoever thinks differently is not na-
tional; he does not belong to the best
circles. Among the many genuine Ger-
mans of every class with whom I have
spoken during these years of war there
are at most three who come up to the
requirements of Kapp, and these three
never bothered about politics . until
August, 1914. * * *

How easily his beliefs overcome rea-
son is shown by his repetition of the
rumor that " England, even before the
war, demanded the dismissal of Herr von
Tirpitz." Never did a Briton worthy of
keeping out of the madhouse think of
such a demand; as late as June, 1914,
Mr. Churchill expressed a desire to con-
fer with the admired Great Admiral.
Herr Kapp looks upon everybody who
wished, or still wishes, dignified recon-
ciliation with England as a fool or a
wretch. He is of the opinion that Amer-
ican financial aid " has a very disagree-
able side for our foes, since the money is
by no means given free." Enough!
Even with a will as strong as that shown
by the author one cannot find, in the
fifty-one pages of his work, a single
sentence worthy to provide food for
thought to a politician.

The second hostile document does not
leap from Pan-Germany to Manchester,
nor prophesy a world power destined
to bring humanity and nations unclouded
days of peace. " Junius Alter " — so the
author styles himself. * * *

The German Empire was not, after the
retirement of Prince Billow, " in desper-
ate case"; it was able, both east and
west, to make protective alliances. But,
if the situation in 1909 was " desperate,"
by what right is Herr von Bethmann to
be damned to the lowest depths? He is
accused of " unqualified love of peace,"
of being impelled to obtain " reconcilia-
tion at any price." " Mad desire for rec-
onciliation and arriving at an under-
standing " are brought up against the
Chancellor, who ignored three English
expressions of a wish to arrive at an un-
derstanding, who put through an army

increase never before dreamed of, who
declared war on two allied great powers
and sanctioned the onslaught upon Bel-
gium. What is said about the attitude
of Serbia, Belgium, Italy, and Japan can
easily be proved false on the day when it
becomes possible to speak openly of such
things. Herr Ballin (whose " close per-
sonal relations " to Herr von Tirpitz
antedate those with the Chancellor)
never counseled timid compliance with
English or American demands, but wrote,
on the contrary, that he must needs de-
spise himself if he allowed himself, at
such a critical time, to be moved by the
business interests of his Hamburg- Amer-
ican Line. * * *

And so forth. Good sense alternates
with foolishness; weeds of error choke
"many a truth. Mistakes which should be
censured are not noted by this critic;
that which he deems reprehensible will
appear to others — whose love of country
is, notwithstanding, by no means more
lukewarm — as worthy of praise.

On two important points both critics
agree. They are firm in the rock-bound
conviction that the war may be carried
by military means to a triumphant con-
clusion; that the German Empire can
obtain large territories in Europe and
Africa; that indemnity for most of the
war expenses can be assured to it; that
only a man leaning toward submissive-
ness can fail to reach this goal. (Why
a Chancellor whose existence and repu-
tation depend on the hazard of war
should be too weak to make others fight
and bleed on land and sea, and to allow
the strategists, upon whom he might
shift responsibility, to go their way un-
checked, nobody has yet explained. No
matter.) Every wish for a worthy under-
standing, one that might organize peace
and save Europe from exhaustion, is
foolish or criminal. Whether America,
a hemisphere, fights against us or not
is unworthy of discussion. Submarine
warfare is a certain means for the over-
throw of Britain; after such a victory
no conspiracy against us need ever again
be feared. Whoever thinks otherwise
excludes himself by that very act from
the ranks of the patriots. * * *
A holy nation of heroic, unconquerable

BETHMANN HOLLWEG'S PEACE PLANS

1109

angels surrounded by murderers, foot-
pads, and the spawn of vipers, all of
whom — except for three comrades of an-
other stripe — are but a hellish brood de-
voured by lust for profit — never was
there aught like that! Never were there
on earth the human pests which you
have imagined, nor such an unearthly,
brilliant victory as you hope for. No
nation could stand it; to none could it
bring fruit from which good could come.
Only at the cost of its own ruin can one
group overthrow the other — shall it be in
1917 or 1920?

We may be content with the harvest
of the war if it airs and cleanses the
earth, transforms swampy lands, clouded
with hate and ringed around with envy,
into the bright home of free human be-
ings, living within their own rights, and,
by that very token, respecting the rights
of those around them. It is not easy for
a nation fighting in the shadow of deadly
peril to weigh true values soberly. Woe
to him who makes this task even harder
by wicked passion! He burdens himself
with a guilt that will crush him on the
Day of Judgment.

Have a care lest ye force upon the
nation the phantom of your soul, hunger-
ing in its cage. Snatch, rather, the
bandage from its eyes; allow the people,
which gives its blood and will .give its
worldly goods, to shape its destiny in
freedom; everything not small would be
far too great for it were it, tomorrow, to
be yet under guardianship. Rant not
about growth and character, muscle, the
shepherd's staff! Nay, free yourselves,

and your wives and children, from the
lazy craving to be sheep, forever to re-
main sheep!

" I shall endeavor to have the censor-
ship applied as little as possible in polit-
ical matters only slightly connected with
the conduct of the war." Solacing words
of shepherd wisdom! Nothing but a few
words, which can never become reality.
Were every censor squarely responsible
to every writer and to the people, one
might believe in mitigation of the censor-
ship. It is merely the visible sign of
the state of mind which makes it pos-
sible; it is the fever flaming out of ill-
ness. It exists because legislators and
press demand it; it would perish miser-
ably at the threat of a refusal to vote war
credits, to suspend further publication of
a newspaper. The masked writers de-
mand freedom for themselves, not for
those thinking differently.

" There can be no talk, of course, of a
hollow, premature peace, for that will
hurt us abroad." More nonsense, which
becomes childish in the sunlight. What-
ever Tom, Dick, or Harry may say in
Germany about the conduct or object of
the war will not hurt us abroad. Naught
will harm us there except the constant
attempt to look like sheep obediently
trotting behind the shepherd.

Right and left the foe is listening;
but nowhere can he detect the voice of
the German people. Could he but hear it,
we should be near to peace, which is
possible today, which only a miracle
could make better.

The Chancellor's Counterattack

Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg's
Reichstag speech of July 5, part of which
was printed on page 728 of the June
CURRENT HISTORY, still stirs European
echoes. The article by Maximilian Har-
den, which precedes this one, is a case
in point, as is also the speech by Sazo-
noff, which follows it. The passages at*
tacking the Chancellor's German critics
have only recently reached this country,
and are reproduced herewith:

After denouncing as " shameless lies "

the statements that he was in a state
of physical collapse when informed that
England would enter the war, or that he
was opposed to measures prior to the
war for strengthening the army, or that
he could have won over Japan if he had
favored a large loan to that country, he
proceeded as follows :

I MUST place still lower one of the
most repugnant assertions. I am ac-
cused of keeping back for three
precious days, against the wish of the

1110 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

military authorities, the order for mobil-
ization, which have cost us not only
part of Alsace, but also streams of blood,
and the striking of the first blow at the
right time, in the hope, based on my
old idea, of an understanding with Eng-
land— I know that these attempts at an
understanding with England are my
capital offense. I have already spoken
once at length in the Keichstag against
these poisonous and insidious calumnies.
I must do it once more.

What was Germany's position ? France
and Eussia were closely united by an
indissoluble alliance; there was a strong
party of revenge in France; an influential
and growing section, moving toward
war, in Russia. France and Russia could
only be held in check if the hope of Eng-
land was successfully taken from them.
They would then never have ventured on
war. If I wished to work against war —
and I have done so — I had to attempt
to enter into relationship with England.
That would have kept down the war
parties in France and Russia. I made
this attempt in face of an English policy
of envelopment, hostile to Germany,
which was also known to me. I am not
ashamed of it, even if it has proved
abortive. Let any one who, after wit-
nessing this world war, which has now
lasted almost two years, with its heca-
tombs of human sacrifices, tries to rep-
resent my action as a crime, answer for
his accusation before God. I contem-
plate my sentence calmly.

But the efforts to come to an under-
standing with England had nothing to
do with the mobilization of the army.
I am accused of keeping back for three
days the order for mobilization, and
thus having caused the streams of blood
of our people. Does not the obscurantist
who wrote that know that in these three
critical days we feverishly worked for a
settlement of the differences between
Russia and Austria-Hungary, and that
especially the Kaiser, whose most earnest
desire was the preservation of peace in
the interests of the people, remained in
uninterrupted telegraphic communication
with the Czar? Does not this writer see
that, if we had mobilized three days
earlier, we should have laid upon our-
selves that blood-guiltiness which Rus-

sia took upon herself, when she did so
when negotiations were proceeding fa-
vorably, contrary to the promises she
had solemnly given us ?

This man, who is falsifying history in
this way, assumes to sit in judgment
over me! Tear away the mask, that we
may see who it is that, in these trying
times, dares to misuse the names of the
German people and of Bismarck with the
basest hints and slanders.

Another publication, gentlemen, the
author of which bears a good name. It
is the Generallandsehaftsdirektor Kapp.
This man contrives to assert that the
watchword issued by me is beginning to
play the same unfortunate role as in
1806 did that traitorous phrase: "Tran-
quillity is the first civil duty," issued
after Jena. Where is that Jena now?
Has the author no appreciation of the
greatness of the present time when he
warningly recalls Jena? Has he the im-
pudence to call me a traitor to the State
when in the struggle, above all, I can
only see a united Germany?

Gentlemen, it is not, indeed, pleasant
to have to defend one's self against the
lies of a foreign enemy, but libels and
calumnies at home are loathsome; still,
I accept the battle and will fight it
through with all the means at my dis-
posal. It is not my person that is in
question. What does the individual mat-
ter today when the entire fit manhood of
Germany looks death in the face ? What
is in question is the cause of the Father-
land, which will suffer most grievously
if mistrust and error are systematically
carried round at great expense and with
a great waste of printer's ink.

It may appear remarkable that I oc-
cupy your time today with references
to secret pamphlets, but I consider it my
duty to take care that the mind of the
people should not be poisoned and to
throw light on these secret agitations.

Gentlemen, I know well that no party
in this house would approve of incite-
ments based on untruths and calumnies,
but the pirates of public opinion un-
fortunately but too often make a false
use of the flag of national parties.
Under the protection of this banner I
am now attacked as a despiser of the
great national traditions of which the

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ATTACKS HIS DETRACTORS

1111

old parties of this house are so justly
proud. As a proof it is stated that I
try to curry favor with the Social Dem-
ocrats and patronize the pessimists.
Again and again we hear: This Chan-
cellor depends entirely on the Social
Democrats and the pacifists.

Gentlemen, in this war in which there
are but Germans, am I to keep to
parties? I am well aware that the dif-
ference between national and other
parties played a great role in political
life before the war, but the best fruits
that this wr.r can bring us will be that
these diffeiences be laid aside once for
all, because the national spirit will have
become a matter of course. My hopes
in this direction are confident and firm,
in spite of the gentlemen around Herr
Liebknecht. These will be called to ac-
count by the people af.ter the war.

We shall have party strifes after the
war as violent, perhaps even more so,
than before. It will be a new era with
new mental movements and new social
demands ! The time will come when these
battles will have to be fought, but are
we to poison them from the outset by
continuing to operate according to th<?
old plan of national and anti-national
parties ?

I see the entire nation in heroic stature,
fighting for its future. Our sons and
brothers are fighting and dying side by
side. There we see equal love for home
in all, whether home comprised for them
possessions and riches, or whether it was
a place where only their own strength
afforded them a livelihood. This sacred
flame of love of home burns in every
heart, so that they defy death and face
a thousand dangers. Only a heart com-
pletely dried up can fail to feel the af-

fecting impression of the great primitive
strength of this nation, or resist the
most ardent love for this people. Ought
I to divide? Should I not rather unite?
Should anxiety and care concerning the
struggle in the future cripple the forces
which we need to continue the great
battle in the present? No, gentlemen,
belief in and love for my people give me
the firm certainty that we shall fight
and conquer as we have fought and con-
quered hitherto.

Gentlemen, I must now conclude. Our
enemies wish to let it go on to the end.
We fear neither death nor the devil, nor
the hunger devil which they wish to
send into our country. The men who
fight out there around Verdun, who
fight under Hindenburg, our proud blue-
jackets who showed Albion how the rats
can bite, are fashioned from a breed that
knows how to bear privations also. These
privations are there. I say that calmly
and openly, even to foreign countries,
but we bear them, and in this battle also
progress is being made. A gracious
Heaven allows a good harvest to ripen
here. It will not be worse but better
than in the previous hard year and
better than it is now. This reckoning of
our enemies on our economic difficulties
will prove deceptive. Another calcula-
tion was sharply upset by our young
navy on June 1. Nor will this victory
make us boastful; we know well that
England is thereby not yet beaten, but
it is a token of our future, wherein Ger-
many on the sea also will win for herself
full equality of rights, and also for
smaller peoples the lasting freedom of
the sea routes now closed by England's
domination. That is the bright and prom-
ising light that shone out on June 1.

Who Is Responsible for the War?

An Answer to the German Chancellor

By S. D. Sazonoff

Russian Ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs

From a statement made to a correspondent of the Russkoe Slovo, Moscow, which has
been widely discussed in the German press. This was one of the last public utterances of
the Minister before retiring from office.

E substance and vehement tone of
the latest declarations of the German
Chancellor are explained when one
remembers that Bethmann Hollweg had
to defend his reputation as a statesman
and his policies, not before some neutral
audience, but against the rebukes and
criticisms of his own fellow-country-
men. * * '* In an attempt to white-
wash himself he has surpassed all that he
ever said before. Thus, for instance, he
does not hesitate to make the extraordi-
nary statement that " England, France,
and Russia were closely united in an
alliance against Germany." In order to
say such a thing one must be sure of his
audience. It is true that the Germans,
on account of their military education,
are capable of accepting collectively
everything told them by their Govern-
ment as a revelation from on high.
Nevertheless, what the Chancellor dared
to declare no literate man elsewhere in
Europe would dare to claim. That there
was no such alliance in existence between
England, France, and Russia is known to
the Chancellor as well as to many others;
but he thinks it unprofitable to confess
it,

As far as I am concerned, I was per-
sonally always of the opinion that if
Germany began a war in Europe for the
establishment of her hegemony, Eng-
land's participation in such a war would
be inevitable. However, I was not so
certain that England's entrance into it
would take place immediately after Ger-
many's attack upon France. The Chan-
cellor permits himself to say that we,
that is, France and Russia, would never
have dared to accept Germany's challenge
for war had we not been assured of Eng-
land's co-operation. But in reality the
situation was exactly such as the Chan-

cellor refuses to admit. Though loving
peace and desirous of relieving the situ-
ation without bloodshed, France and
Russia, nevertheless, had decided to re-
sist Germany, and once for all to put an
end to her habit of stepping on her
neighbors' toes.

What happened then? As a result of
Germany's clumsy diplomacy, the En-
tente Cordiale, with its loose form, has
grown into a firm political alliance,
bound together for many years with the
object of defending the rights and inter-
ests of the powers belonging to it, and
to preserve peace in Europe.

In addition to the many charges of the
Chancellor, which are all remarkable for
their bad faith, he also condemns Russia
for burdening her conscience with the
guilt of a bloody crime by her " prema-
ture " mobilization. Of course, the
Chancellor did not consider it expedient
to remember that the Russian mobiliza-
tion took place after the full mobilization
of the Austrian Army, and after the
mobilization of a considerable part of the
German Army.

The fact of the early mobilization order
printed in the Prussian official organ,
the Lokal Anzeiger, is known to all,
and although the copies of that paper
were later torn by the police from the
hands of the public, the fact remains a
fact.

Ignoring the methods selected by the
Chancellor in his self-defense, I am ready
to admit that it is indeed possible that
the Chancellor himself did not desire the
war and was not even its immediate
culprit. But, should we even admit such
a possibility, that will only make it ap-
parent that the war was sought and
aimed at by his many official colleagues.
The conviction, firmly established in Eu-

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR? 1113

rope, that the ultimatum to Serbia was prove, in comparison with that of the

worked out under the direct supervision achievements, many times longer,

of a German diplomat occupying a high By no amount of ingenuity can the

post, and was immediately dispatched to Chancellor ever succeed in proving that

the German Emperor for approval, pass- the war was caused by Russia or Eng-

ing the responsible leader of German land. The war is exclusively the work

politics, will but attest the fact that the of the Pan-Germanic cancer which has

Chancellor was not master in his own been eating into the body of Germany

house. At the same time it is hard to for years, and which has now reached

entertain the thought that the Chancellor her vital organs.

could remain completely outside the To me, personally, it seems that at

machinations of the enemies of peace in times both the Chancellor and von Jagow

Europe, or that he could be entirely un- realized the danger hidden in that ter-

aware of them. rible malady, but neither of them had

Herr von Bethmann Hollweg fre- the courage to enter into a struggle

quently speaks with artificial satisfac- against it. So long as Germany's neigh-

tion of what Germany has accomplished bors are not convinced that Pan-Ger-

since the beginning of hostilities, and manism, in whose hands Prussian mili-

caref ully avoids mentioning the things tarism is the chief instrument, has ceased

Germany had definitely planned, and to be a world menace, so long is peace

which still remain but a dream. A list impossible between the Allies and Ger-

of these unaccomplished things would many.

Verdun

By EMILE CAMMAERTS
[From Land and Water]

La neige saupoudre les collines,
La glace frange les ruisseaux,
Les bois decpupent leurs ombres fines —
Vert des sapins, brun des bouleaux —
La Terre dort sous un ciel sourd,
La Meuse

Noire murmure une berceuse . . .
.Et Verdun tient toujours.

Avril sourit sur les collines,

La crue gonfle les ruisseaux,

Les buissonschantent,les bois s'animent —

Noir des sapins, jaune des bouleaux

La Terre fait un reve d'amour,

La Meuse

Bleue roule ses eaux furieuses . . .

Et Verdun tient toujours.

Le soleil inonde les collines,

Les pres en fleurs et les ruisseaux,

Sous da feuillee, Pabeille butine —

Vert des sapins, vert des bouleaux —

La Terre se panic au bras du Jour,

La Meuse

Claire demele ses boucles langoureuses . . .

Et Verdun- tient toujours.

Lutz est tombee, Kolomea,
Asiago et Posina —
La Terre mange ses conquerants —
La Boisselle tombe et Montauban,
Dompierre tombe et Becquincourt —
Tandis que, la-bas, la Meuse
Rouge berce ses eaux trompeuses . . .
Mais Verdun tient toujours!
Juillet, 1916. [All rights reserved.]

The Kaiser's Message to America

By Alfred K. Nippert

Judge of Common Pleas Court, Cincinnati, and Vice President of American
Commission for Relief of East Prussia

Judge Nippert dined with Emperor
William at the German headquarters near
Verdun on June 24, and afterward, talked
with him for two hours, receiving an
informal message from the Kaiser to
President Wilson, which he delivered on
his return to the United States. The
following article is condensed from a
verbal statement made by Judge Nippert
to a representative of THE NEW YORK
TIMES: •

THE German Kaiser asked me to
deliver this message to the Pres-
ident of the United States:

" It might be well for America to
know that of 3.000 inhabitants, women,
children, and old men, driven by the
Cossacks out of one town on the Prussian
frontier, across the icy fields and snow-
covered steppes into Russia, 40 per cent.
of the children have died and 30 per
cent, of the women. Ten thousand
women and children and old men have
been driven into Russia from the Prus-
sian frontier.

" It is the fate of these nonbelligerents
that causes me to express to the President
of the United States the wish and hope
that America, as the great nation which
has done so much for the different war-
stricken districts, will not turn a deaf ear
to the call of the children and the tears
of the mothers who are still surviving
Russian captivity today.

" If America, with her standing among
the nations of the world, could exercise
her great influence through her Govern-
ment and its President, to prevail upon
Russia to release the surviving remnant
of this vast number of those who have
suffered, then America would, indeed, be
doing an act of humanity for which my
people would be eternally grateful. We
ask nothing for our army or for our-
selves, but fathers and mothers, brothers
and sisters, are standing in despair at
our 'frontier, looking for the return of

those who are near and dear to them,
and we are helpless.

" A third Winter of war in Russia will
mean the absolute annihilation of every
woman, certainly every child, who is
being held captive in the country beyond
the Fatherland. Here is an opportunity
for America to invoke the spirit of hu-
manity arid bring happiness and joy
where today is only sorrow and distress."

Judge Nippert spent three and one-
half months in Germany visiting particu-
larly that part of East Prussia which was
invaded by the Russians early in the war.
He went abroad to see how the $400,000
sent by the American Commission for
the Relief of East Prussia had been
expended.

The Emperor, according to Judge
Nippert, expressed much surprise that
the American people, who had accepted as
true all the stories of the destruction of
Rheims Cathedral and the Hotel de Ville
in Louvain by the Germans, should take
no interest, seemingly, in the wanton de-
struction by the Cossacks of churches
erected in East Prussia in the eleventh
and twelfth canturies by the Knights of
the Crusades.

" I saw the Emperor by invitation at
his headquarters at the Western fron-
tier," said Judge Nippert. " I am not at
liberty to be more precise as to the geo-
graphical location. It was on the evening
of the day of the Kaiser's visit to the
Verdun front, and I had just returned
from Rheims, that is to say, Zerney, a
village just across the field from the
Rheims Cathedral, and the nearest place
occupied by the German troops.

" The Rheims Cathedral, by the way, is
not destroyed, but, on the contrary, one
is able to count every tile in the roof,
and to notice every Gothic ornament upon
its beautiful turrets or steeples. Remem-
bering the fake pictures which were
published of the burning cathedral at

THE KAISER'S MESSAGE TO AMERICA

1115

Rheims, as well as the ruins of the Hotel
de Ville, or Town Hall, at Louvain, one
had to rub his eyes when he beheld both
of these structures intact and still used
for the purposes for which they were
originally erected hundreds of years ago.
" There is not a scratch on the thou-
sands of ornaments that decorate the
Hotel de Ville, at Louvain.

" The Kaiser remarked to me that it
was strange that Americans should have
failed to realize the terrible destruction
of the beautiful and historic edifices of
worship, built by the Knights of the Cru-
sades in the eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies throughout the length and breadth
of East Prussia.

"The Kaiser then added:
" ' Even Napoleon, during his invasion
of East Prussia in 1807, and at the
battles of Friedland and Eylau, destroyed
only those edifices which were considered
necessary for military reasons, and scru-
pulously avoided the wanton destruction
of houses of worship. But not so the Cos-
sack. He is neither respecter of per-
sons nor of religions, and what those
beautiful churches of the Knights of the
Crusades have suffered along the Prus-
sian frontier can be appreciated only by
those persons who have seen them.' "

Asked to describe the Kaiser's appear-
ance and personality, Judge Nippert said:
" The Kaiser is the healthiest mortal
that — I was going to say — I ever saw.
There is fire in his eye, he shows a
quickness of mind in conversation, and
an alertness of spirit that is amazing —
simply amazing. There is about him
not only freshness, and virility of spirit
and mind, but I became conscious of his
absolute optimism and assurance of ulti-
mate and complete victory of the Ger-
man arms. That optimism is, perhaps,
the distinguishing feature of this re-
markable personality.

" His complexion is as brown as an In-
dian's, his eyes are blue and responsive
in their expression to the emotion of the
moment. They never leave the eyes of
the person addressed. He will put a
question quickly, fold his arms, and
stand looking you straight in the eye,
waiting for an answer. He would rather
have you say that, for some reason,
either because you don't know, or are not

sure, or prefer not to reply to a question
he puts to you, than for you to offer an
evasive rejoinder. He likes a plain yes
or no, and your reason therefor.

" I was struck by his fund of general
information. His knowledge of Ameri-
can literature and history was a surprise
to me as it would be to any other Ameri-
can whT> had been surfeited with mis-
information concerning this striking per-
sonality, either through the allied press
or American newspaper lies.

"As a matter of fact, the Kaiser is
more familiar with the history of the
War of Independence and the War of
1812, and of the lives of the men who
made the success of the American arms
possible, than most of the graduates of
some of our big colleges whom I have
had occasion to meet within the last two
years. The Emperor is today deeply ap-
preciative of the service which his dis-
tinguished forebear, Frederick the Great,
was able to render George Washington,
during the dark days of Valley Forge,
and the Kaiser was particularly pleased
to recall to me that the first Major Gen-
eral of the American Army was Baron
von Steuben, who demonstrated to the
American troops that the bayonet was
not a toasting fork for potatoes, but an
effective weapon of offense if properly
used.

" The Kaiser had been at Verdun that
day, June 24, visiting with his son, who
had achieved a notable success the day
before at Fleury. He was in splendid
spirits when we met at the dinner table.
The menu was simple and short. We sat
down at eight o'clock. Including the
Emperor's staff and others, the party
was composed of twelve to fifteen per-
sons.

"The dinner party broke up at 8:45
o'clock. We had been served with, first,
a plate of clabber — the best clabber I
ever tasted in my life. The next thing
was pike, then came a plate of veal roast,
with peas, beans, and potatoes; then a
side dish of cauliflower, with gravy.
There was ice cream, and the company
had its choice of three kinds of wine — •
claret, Rhine wine, and a strawberry
bowl.

" After dinner," Judge Nippert contin-

1116 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of Th* New York Times

ued, " we all adjourned to the smoking
room, and the Kaiser lit one of his favor-
ite Turkish cigarettes, offering me my
choice between one of those or a clear
Havana cigar. It was remarkable that,
though it was now 9 o'clock, the twilight
permitted our being able, without arti-
ficial assistance, easily to read a news-
paper.

" In a few minutes the Kaiser started
for a walk, and invited me to accompany
him. From that time until after 11
o'clock he carried on a most interesting
and many-sided conversation, touching
largely upon the relief of East Prussia,
the work of the American commission,
and the work of those citizens of the
United States who are interested in the
destinies of Germany; that is to say,
those who are sympathizers of Germany
in this world struggle.

" The Emperor told me he took no is-
sue with those in America who take an-
other view of this world struggle. He is
broadminded and liberal in all such mat-
ters. He was interested to be told by
me that, even though my forefathers had
left Germany in 1829, I was still con-
cerned in the history, traditions, and
future of the German people.

"In my opinion," said Judge Nippert
enthusiastically, " the Kaiser is one of
the few monarchs who are real servants
of their people. I believe it to be truly
his motto that the first duty of the
Hohenzollerns is to be the first servant
of their people.

" What inspired his Majesty's acute
interest in my mission to East Prussia
was that the American Commission for
East Prussian Relief was organized
among the people of the United States
for the purpose of aiding in the rehabili-
tation of that country. It has met with
wonderful response from all sides.

" While Belgium and Poland had their
relief fund, and Northern France its aid,
and Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and
Macedonia were also under the affluent
protectorate of benevolent American mil-
lionaires— even far-off Armenia has her
wealthy American benefactors — poor
East Prussia had been left out. The
ravages of war have been more violent
and more uncompromising there than in

any part of the area covered by the
armies. And yet, little is known in this
country of the extensive material de-
struction which has been carried on
withou4- any military necessity or reason.

" The history of sorrow, distress, crime
and devastation, the murder •! innocents,
the rape of women, torture of men, de-
struction of schools and churches, the
burning of farms, killing of wonderful
Holstein herds — it all goes to make a
page in the history of the European war
that, as yet, has not been read by the
American public. There is no sadder
story — none that should appeal more to
the sympathetic hearts of a sympathetic
nation than this story of Cossack .inva-
sion of the beautiful prairies and forests
of East Prussia.

"It was this district that I was es-
pecially interested in," Judge Nippert
continued, " and in company with the
Province President, his Excellency von
Batocki, who is now Minister of Food
Distribution for the German Empire, we
started at the Russian frontier village of
Eydikuhnen. We visited the different
towns as far as Stalluponen. There a
large squad of Russian prisoners were
cleaning up the debris of the ruins which
they themselves had been instrumental in
creating.

" While we were examining the wrecks
of the houses a message was handed to
von Batocki notifying him of his appoint-
ment. He immediately left for Berlin,
and I was then put in charge of the
President of the Gumbinnen district,
Count von Lambstorff. It was one suc-
cession of burned buildings, ruined homes
and mourning people.

" There is so much of sorrow and so
much of distress in all these places that
it is impossible to mention the details
and the peculiar methods used by the
different Cossack regiments in various
districts. But the American Relief Com-
mission, being especially interested in
the district of Ragnit — the very frontier
township of the Gumbinnen district — it
will be of peculiar interest to the Ameri-
can people to hear what happened in that
Benjamin of the twelve townships of
Gumbinnen.

" To appreciate the situation," ex-

THE KAISER'S MESSAGE TO AMERICA

1117

plained Judge Nippert, unfolding a map
of the country, " one must realize that
the northeastern part of the Township
of Ragnit is the shape of a bear skin —
geographically speaking — cut off from
the rest of the country on the south by
the broad River Menel, on the west by
the swamps of the Yura, while the north
and east are wholly Russian, densely
forested to the very edge of the German
frontier.

" There are only a few roads, and they
are bad, until you come to the first Ger-
man village in this district, which I have
named the bear skin. The history of
the bear skin is a history of tears and
sorrow. At the beginning of the war
6,000 people lived there — happy with
their children and crops. When the war
broke out, between 700 and 1,000 men
joined the troops, or the Government
service in one line or another, leaving
the women and children to attend to the
crops and flocks.

" The Russians came out of the forest
over night like hungry wolves and took
possession of the entire bear skin. The
bridges to the Fatherland were blown
up and the ferries across the Yura were
either destroyed or captured by the Rus-
sians. Five thousand people were literal-
ly marooned. The Germans were unable
to drive the Cossacks out of these dis-
tricts, and up to Feb. 15, 1915, they had
undisputed sway and added a bloody
page to the history of warfare.

" When the Cossacks left, of the 5,000
people of the bear skin district 3,000

were carried to the den of the Russian
bear. When I say 3,000 I do not mean
men; I mean women, with all their chil-
dren. The men were at war, or had
been taken prisoners by the Russians
early in the game. This fate befell
mothers with from two to twelve chil-
dren, ranging in age from two months
to 16 years. Little girls, little boys —
neither sex nor age received mercy at
the hands of these Russian brutes.

" The Cossacks gathered them like the
Texas cowboy would round up his cat-
tle and drove them along the highways
into the Russian inferno. Mothers gave
birth to children in the forests with the
snow for a cradle and a dark Russian
pine for a canopy. The children were
buried as soon as they were born; va
blanket of snow was all that kind nature
contributed to cover the bones of the
new-born victims.

" Let me tell you that there is in the
history of our Western frontier during
the bloodiest days of Sioux and Apache
warfare nothing that can equal the story
of the bear skin. I have in my possession
records of villages, family by family,
with the age, and so forth, of the mother
and each of the children. And it is shown
that of the 3,000 persons who were car-
ried into Russia 40 per cent, of the chil-
dren have died and 30 per cent, of the
women. The Russian cattle cars and
the Russian steppes are no more the
respecters of persons, sex, or age than
the Cossack, and each has demanded its
toll."

Lord Kitchener

By ROBERT BRIDGES

Unflinching hero, watchful to foresee
And face thy country's peril wheresoe'er,
Directing war and peace with equal care,
Till by long toil ennobled thou wert he
Whom England call'd and bade " Set my arm free
To obey my will and save my honor fair " —
What day the foe presumed on her despair
And she herself had trust in none but thee :

Among Herculean deeds the miracle
That mass'd the labor of ten years in one
Shall be thy monument. Thy work is done
Ere we could thank thee; and the high sea swell
Surgeth unheeding where thy proud ship fell
By the lone Orkneys, ere the set of sun.

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

Survey of Past Events and Forecast for Third Year by
Chief Powers on Both Sides

A permanently valuable summary of the second year of the war is offered in the follow-
ing symposium. One of its significant features is the heightened confidence displayed by the
Entente Allies, with Germany's tacit assumption of a defensive attitude. To the neutral on-
looker ivho tries to regard the facts dispassionately the year 1915 marked the high tide of Ger-
man success, while the year 1916 thus far has steadily tended to reverse the situation, placing
the Teutons on the defensive and turning the tide of battle gradually in favor of the Allies.
Germany's failure at Verdun promises to be the historic landmark indicating the momentous
change. It will be interesting, when the end comes, to see how the official predictions re-
corded "below look in the light of events which the third year of war still hides behind the veil
of the future.

Proclamations of Kaiser and King

Anniversary Utterances

The following proclamation to the
German forces on land and sea was
issued by Emperor William on Aug. 1 :

COMRADES, the second year of the
world war has elapsed. Like the
first year, it was for Germany's
arms a year of glory. On all
fronts you inflicted new and heavy blows
on the enemy. Whether the enemy re-
treated, borne down by the force of your
attacks, or whether, reinforced by for-
eign assistance, collected and pressed
into service from all parts of the world,
he tried to rob you of the fruits of
former victories, you always proved
yourselves superior to him. Even where
England's tyranny was uncontested,
namely, on the free waves of the sea, you
victoriously fought against gigantic
superiority.

Your Emperor's appreciation and your
grateful country's proud admiration are
assured to you for these deeds, for your
unshaken loyalty, for your bold daring,
and for your tenacious bravery. Like the
memory of our dead heroes, your fame
also will endure through all time. The
laurels which our ever-confident forces
have won against the enemy, in spite of
trials and dangers, are inseparably linked
with the devoted and untiring labor at
home.

This strength at home has sent an
ever-fresh inspiration to the armies in
the field. It has continually quickened

our swords, has kindled Germany's en-
thusiasm, and has terrified the enemy.
My gratitude and that of the Fatherland
are due the nation at home.

But the strength and will of the enemy
are not yet broken. We must continue
the severe struggle in order to secure the
safety of our beloved homeland, to pre-
serve the honor of the Fatherland and
the greatness of the empire.

Whether the enemy wages war with the
force of arms, or with cold, calculating
malice, we shall continue as before into
the third year of the war. The spirit of
duty to the Fatherland and unbending
will to victory permeate our homes and
our fighting forces today, as in the first
days of the war. With God's gracious
help, I am convinced that your future
deeds will equal those of ther past and
present.

Main headquarters.

WILHELM.

On Aug. 1 the German Emperor also
sent this message to Dr. von Bethmann
Hollweg, the Imperial Chancellor:

For the second time the anniversary of
the day arrived when our enemies forced
me to call Germany's sons to arms to
protect the honor and existence of the
empire.

The German Nation has been through
two years of unprecedentedly heroic deeds
and suffering. The army and navy, in
union with our loyal and brave allies,

GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA

The Talented Wife of Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia- -Formerly a
Prince** of Montenegro -Has Given Valuable Aid in Organiring the

Munitions Campaign

THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE

Governor General and Commander in Chief of the Dominion of Canada,
Appointed June 28, 191J5, to Succeed the Duke of Connaught.

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1119

have gained the highest glory in attack
and defense. Many thousands of our
brethren have sealed their loyalty to the
Fatherland with their blood.

In the west and in the east our heroic
men in field-gray resist in unshaken for-
titude the terrible onslaught of the
enemy.

Our young fleet on that glorious day
in the Skagerrak inflicted a heavy blow
on the British armada. Deeds of untir-
ing sacrifice and loyal comradeship at
the front glow brightly before my eyes.

At home also we see heroism. v Men
and women, old and young, all quietly
and bravely wearing mourning, and the
anxiety of all who organize and help to
lessen the suffering caused by the war
and of all who labor day and night un-
ceasingly to supply our fighting brothers
in the trenches and at sea with the
necessary armament.

Our enemies' hopes to outstrip our pro-
duction of war material will prove as un-
attainable as was their plan to secure
by starvation what their sword could not
attain. God's blessings on Germany's
fields* has rewarded the farmers more
bountifully than we dared to hope. South
and North in friendly rivalry strive to
find the best means for an even distribu-
tion of the foodstuffs and other neces-
saries.

To all those fighting either on the bat-
tlefield or at home, my heartiest thanks.

Still hard times are ahead. After the
terrible storm of the two years of war a
desire for sunshine and peace is stirring
in all human hearts, but the war con-
tinues because the battle-cry of the enemy
Governments is still the destruction of
Germany. Blame for further bloodshed
falls only on our enemies. The firm con-
fidence has never left me that Germany
is invincible in spite of the superior num-
bers of our enemies, and every day con-
firms this anew.

Germany knows she is fighting for her
existence. She knows her strength, and
she relies on God's help. Therefore noth-
ing can shake her determination or her
assurance. We shall bring this struggle
to such an end that our empire will be
protected against future attack, and that
a free field will be assured for the peace-

ful development of German genius and
labor.

We shall live free, secure, and strong
among the nations of the world. This
right nobody shall or will snatch from us.
I ask you to make this manifest public.

KING GEORGE OF ENGLAND

King George telegraphed to the heads
of Entente States on Aug. 4, the second
anniversary of Great Britain's entry into
the war, the following pledge:

On this second anniversary of the
great conflict in which my country and
her gallant allies are engaged I desire
to convey to you my steadfast resolution
to prosecute the war until our united ef-
forts have attained the objects for which
we in common have taken up arms. '

I feel assured that you are in accord
with me in the determination that the
sacrifices our valiant troops have so
nobly made shall not have been offered
in vain, and that the liberties for which
they are fighting shall be fully guaran-
teed and secured.

King George also sent this message to
King Albert of Belgium:

I desire to assure you of my confidence
that the united efforts of the Allies will
liberate Belgium from the oppression of
her aggressors and restore to her the full
enjoyment of her national and economic
independence.

I also desire to convey my deep sym-
pathy in the grievous trials to which
Belgium is so unjustly subjected and
which she has borne with such admirable
fortitude.

PRESIDENT POINCARE
The President of France addressed
these words to his nation on Aug. 1
through the official journal, the Bulletin
des Armees:

For the second time we have to com-
memorate a soul-stirring anniversary.
Two sections of mankind have been grap-
pling with one another and are fighting
amid streams of blood. The nations who
have let loose that stupendous catas-
trophe have not yet completely expiated
their act. But justice is on its way.

Instinctively, mutilated France, which
during forty-four years had imposed

1120 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

silence on her sorrow, understood in 1914
that the foe who was attacking her,
blinded by pride and fanaticized by
hatred, had no grievance to plead, no
right to defend, no menace to ward off.
It is in vain that today the aggressors
are attempting to falsify history.

They were at first less knavish and
more cynical when they flattered them-
selves in seeing in the treaties granted
by them nothing but common scraps of
paper. With insolent frankness they
accepted the responsibility of their crime.
The French Nation was conscious that
theirs was a case of legitimate defense;
it realized spontaneously that sacred
union which is the main condition of vic-
tory and which found in the memorable
sitting of the Parliament on Aug. 4, 1914,
an imposing consecration.

The war became immediately, in the
whole force of the term, a national war,
There is not a Frenchman who remained
deaf to the call of his country. When
you were called upon to protect our
frontiers and save our natal soil you
were not only conscious that your ma-
terial interests were at stake; you knew
also that you were going to defend your
hearths, that you were going to defend
all which constitutes France — traditions,
ideas, moral forces, preserved and de-
veloped by a nation which will not die.

Your patience and gallantry during
long months have restrained the pressure
of the German Army. The battlefields
where you have repulsed the enemy — the
Marne, the Yser, Champagne, Artois, the
Meuse, and the Somme — mark so many
stages of victory. It is you who have
enabled France to organize her equip-
ment, and Belgium and Serbia to recon-
struct their armies. It is you who have
given to England the time to form the
admirable divisions which are fighting
now at your side. It is you who have
given to Russia the means to supply
rifles and guns, cartridges and shells to
her heroic troops.

Today, as you see, the Allies are begin-
ning to gather the fruits of your perse-
verance. The Russian Army is pursuing
the Austrian Army in flight. The Ger-
mans, attacked at the same time on the
eastern and western fronts, are engaging

everywhere their reserves. British, Rus-
sian, and French battalions are co-operat-
ing in the liberation of our soil.

The struggle, alas, is not yet ended. It
will still be hard, and all of us must con-
tinue working and working unremittingly
and with fervor. But the superiority of
the Allies is already apparent to every
one. The scales of fate had protracted
oscillations. Now one of the trays keeps
on the ascent, the other is lowering under
a burden which nothing will lighten.

JOFFRE TO HIS SOLDIERS

The following address by General
Joffre to the French Army was issued as
an official order of the day on the second
anniversary of the outbreak of the war:
Soldiers of the Republic:

Your third year of fighting has begun.
For two years past you have been sup-
porting with unfailing strength the
weight of an implacable conflict. You
have caused all the plans of our enemies
to fail. You vanquished them on the
Marne; you checked them on the Yser,
and you beat them in the Artois and in
the Champagne at a time when they were
vainly seeking victory on the plains of
Russia. Then your victorious resistance
during a battle of five months' duration
broke the German effort in front of Ver-
dun.

Thanks to 'your stubborn courage, the
armies of our allies have been enabled to
manufacture arms, the weight of which
our enemies today are experiencing over
their entire front.

The moment is approaching when,
under the strength of our mutual ad-
vance, the military power of Germany
will crumble.

Soldiers of France, you may be proud
of the work you already have accom-
plished! You have determined to see it
through to the end! Victory is certain!

JOFFRE.

RUSSIAN VIEW

General Chouvaieff, Russian Minister
of War, tempers the Allies' expressions
of confidence with this statement:

It is necessary to dispel the illusion
that the war can end in the Autumn.
The breaking down of the enemy's forces
has already begun — a fact as well known

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1121

by the Germans as by the Entente Al-
lies— but Germany's technique is so
high that, in spite of her economic
weakening and the lowered morale of
her troops, she still has the power to
resist, and we must look forward to a
further struggle before the final victory.

This explains the recent orders call-
ing men ordinarily exempt to the colors.
Russia already has a large reserve, but
it is our intention that this reserve shall
not diminish. It is fitting also that the
foreign races in Russia, who ordinarily
would not be obliged to serve, should
be recruited, if not in the active army,
at least in work connected with the con-
duct of the war, for all elements in Rus-
sia will receive the benefits of victory.

General Alexeieff, Commander in Chief
of the Russian armies, says:

I think that we may now be said to
have passed through the most difficult
period of our great war. While still
offering stubborn resistance, our enemy
is beginning to weaken, but we have
need to summon all our powers yet be-
fore we can hope to attain the definite
goal of our hopes.

Premier Sturmer of Russia says :

At the moment when the Allies are
entering upon the third year of the war
the Russian Government is more than
ever resolved to continue the struggle to
the end, and is firmly convinced that,
v/ith the help of the Almighty, the Allies

and their cause of justice and equity
will triumph.

GERMAN OFFICIAL FIGURES

The German Government issued offi-
cially the figures relating to its conquests
at the end of the second year of the war
in a statement which reads:

The Central Powers occupied 431,000
square kilometers, (161,625 square miles,)
against 180,000 (67,625 square miles) a
year ago. The enemy occupied in Europe
22,000 square kilometers, (8,250 square
miles,) against 11,000 (4,125 square
miles) a year ago.

The Central Powers, Bulgaria, and
Turkey captured 2,678,000 enemy sol-
diers, against 1,695,000. Of those taken
prisoner by the Germans 5,947 officers
and 348,000 men were French, 9,100 offi-
cers and 1,202,000 men were Russian, and
947 officers and 30,000 men were British.

The war booty brought to Germany, in
addition to that utilized immediately at
the front, comprised 11,036 cannon, 4,-
700,000 shells, 3,450 machine guns, and
1,556,000 rifles.

According to the latest statistics of
German wounded soldiers, 90.2 per cent,
returned to the front, 1.4 per cent, died;
the rest were unfit for service or were re-
leased. The military measures of the
Central Powers, in consequence of vacci-
nations, were never disturbed by epi-
demics.

How the Second Crisis Was Passed

Summary of a Year's Developments

This excellent summary of the war
events of the year that ended Aug. 1,
1916, is a condensation of the statements
of various French diplomatists and mili-
tary experts. It is the story of the second
year as seen from the viewpoint of
France :

WHILE French, British, and Russian
preparations are daily becoming
more complete, a crisis of ex-
haustion is fast arising for the Austrians
and Germans. Our adversaries thought
it would be impossible for us to prepare,

and certainly during the first year of the
war there were difficulties that had to
be overcome. We are proud to say that
this was accomplished even while our
valiant soldiers were resisting the Ger-
man invasion. Thanks to the patriotism
of the country and the abnegation shown
by all classes in France and England,
thanks also to the campaign in both
countries for more cannon and more am-
munition, industrial action was every-
where multiplied, and General Joffre was
able to say in an order of the day to the

1122 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

army at Verdun : " We have munitions
in abundance."

The extent of the difficulties of the
Central Empires does not even now ap-
pear from the state of the war as viewed
from a geographical standpoint, but has
shown itself in the changed tactics in
evidence and is becoming obvious in the
altered map. The operations of the
Franco-British armies, outnumbered in
men and guns during the first six
months, saved France by sheer heroism,
but could not end the war; could only
prolong it and gain time. The Russians
pushed into East Prussia, conquered the
Bukowina, invaded Galicia, crossed the
Carpathians, and even threatened Silesia,
but exhausted their armament in April,
1915, and lacked even the essentials for
defense. The Germans knew it would be
impossible for Great Britain and France
to have caught up in nine months with
the Germans' forty- five years of prepara-
tions, and felt themselves free, dealing
first with France, to turn upon the Rus-
sian armies. Nine divisions transported
from the Franco-British front reinforced
the Austrians, and the offensive against
the Russians began in May. By the end
of July Przemysl and Lemberg had been
retaken, and the Russians were consider-
ing the abandonment of Warsaw and the
line of the Vistula. Short even of rifles,
many of Emperor Nicholas's troops de-
fended themselves with clubs during the
long retreat, in which was accomplished
the second miracle of the war, the con-
tinuity of their line being everywhere
maintained, as well as the integrity of
the Russian armies.

The battle of Arras in June, 1915, was
considered to have proved the Allies, man
for man, able to beat the Germans in
the offensive, other things being equal,
but the munitions and artillery of the
opposing forces were not yet equally bal-
anced. The transformation of field tac-
tics as the war progressed multiplied the
need for heavy guns and powerful pro-
jectiles to break through concrete-
armored lines. This transformation thus
increased the superiority of belligerents
who had the initial advantage in prepar-
ation, forcing their adversaries to a
greater expenditure of munitions than

their industries were as yet able to
produce, while they themselves were able
to shower the Russian lines with the
biggest of shells.

The end of the first year of the war
was the beginning of the second crisis for
the Allies — a munitions crisis, aggravated
by a diplomatic crisis requiring new en-
terprises that drew on their main forces.
The landing of the French and British
at the Dardanelles in April had weakened
the Allies elsewhere, reducing the number
of reserves on the main front, and if it
did not modify their general plan it ob-
viously made the elaboration of new plans
difficult and hampered their movements.

At the same time the enigmatic situa-
tion in the Orient became serious, Greece
refusing the compensation offered for
territorial concessions to Bulgaria which
might have facilitated a union of the
Balkan States. The situation in Persia
and Asia Minor, following the entry of
Turkey into the war, had developed a
menace to Great Britain in the Far East.
The favorable impression produced by the
advance north of Arras had diminished in
the absence of further operations, and
there was a notabable absence of news
favorable to the Allies.

" More cannon, more ammunition " was
the comment of the French people on the
difficulties that beset them. Women and
girls joined in the efforts of the trained
mechanics brought back from the armies
to the forge and the lathe, and the curve
of munitions production took a sharp up-
ward turn.

The industrial efforts of the Allies
were given the required time by the re-
sistance of the Russian armies. The Ger-
mans advanced, but they could neither
destroy nor dislocate the Russian forces.

While intensifying to the utmost their
production of arms and ammunition the
Allies began early in the second year of
hostilities, with the visit of Field Marshal
Earl Kitchener to France, the series of
conferences that was finally to co-ordi-
nate their military effort.

The French, in the Champagne and in
the Artois in September, gained consider-
able territory and made important cap-
tures in prisoners and material, but as
in the preceding offensive north of Arras

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1123

in June this movement failed of decisive
results because of the narrowness of the
front of the attack and the impossibility
to push artillery preparation deeply
enough into the German lines. That the
offensive was considered to have con-
firmed the superiority of the French sol-
dier in attack in nowise altered the gen-
eral situation.

After the campaign in the Balkans,
which from the German viewpoint was
successful but not decisive, Germany
turned her attention again to the west-
ern front. She then decided upon the ven-
ture at Verdun.

The German plan seems originally to
have been to concentrate artillery, muni-
tions, and men in such force over a
limited length of front that the onrush
would be irresistible. They chose Ver-
dun because the position of the ancient
fortress was such that the defenders had
their backs to the River Meuse on two
sides and because success there would
give the greatest possible prestige with
neutral powers and the maximum com-
fort to their own people. It was also
possible they knew what subsequent
political events in France disclosed —
that the defenses of Verdun were not,
in view of the field tactics of this war,
as strong as other parts of the front.
It is the belief of military experts that
the Germans hoped to break through the
front there and destroy the French
armies. It was imperative that success
be rapid, according to this view, and
when, after three days, the advance was
checked in the region of Douaumont the
project had failed. General Petain, as
an official citation later revealed, had
time to "re-establish a delicate situa-
tion." There was no longer hope of
breaking through the French front.

Every yard of ground gained by the
Germans before Verdun since Feb. 24
has been at an extremely heavy san-
guinary cost. The continuing of so ex-
pensive and fruitless an operation has
puzzled the critics. It has been advanced
that the Germans persisted with the ob-
ject of exhausting the French forces
and preventing an offensive by the Al-
lies elsewhere. If that end was in view
the success of the Allies in the battle of
the Somme shows it was not attained.

The battle of Verdun, if ordered with
the intention of interfering with the of-
fensive plans of the Allies, in nowise
diminished the chances of carrying them
out, whatever the fate of the discarded
fortress, it having now no more signifi-
cance apart from the prestige of the
name than any other point along the
front. Local success there has long been
discounted, and, in military opinion, can
have no vital effect, while the attempting
of a wastage process by the Central Pow-
ers at this stage of the war is held to be
illusory and certainly enormously costly.
The Central Empires have no longer re-
serves in such numbers that they can
afford to launch them against the Allies
in the mere hope of inflicting more dam-
age than they suffer.

The heroic defense of Verdun, on the
other hand, has been for the Allies one
of the notable developments of the war.
Ic held German reserves there in such
numbers as to put an end to the shifting
of troops from front to front. It pre-
vented the reinforcement of the Aus-
trians, suffering from the loss of prison-
ers, with perhaps as many in casualties,
to the armies under General Brusiloff.
It obliged the Germans to prolong during
five months a vast daily expenditure of
projectiles that was expected to continue
only a few days, and has so drawn upon
their reserves of munitions that in the
battle of the Somme they were able to
reply to the French and British guns in
the proportion of only one shot for three.
The successful defense of Verdun and
the successful offensives of the Allies in
the North of France and on the western
front show at the end of the second year
of the war that the finally prepared
war map on which the German Chan-
cellor held that the Allies ought to ac-
cept negotiations is undergoing singular
modifications, with the Russians occu-
pying Bukowina and part of Galicia; the
Italians recovering territory lost in the
recent Austrian offensive and still in
possession of the Isonzo region, and
with the French and British in posses-
sion of more than thirty villages on the
banks of the Somme that had been oc-
cupied by the Germans for twenty
months and each of them transformed

1124 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

in the meantime into miniature fort-
resses. The Allies have caught up with
the advantage of the Central Powers in
preparation, and any further modifica-
tions of the respective positions of the
contending forces, it is believed, must
be a reconquest of invaded territory by
the Allies.

The destruction of adversary forces
is another and a far more difficult mat-

ter. In this war the end may be nearer
than many hope or may yet be far dis-
tant. There are no bases on which to
calculate the progress of military opera-
tions or the resistance of the bellig-
erents, even when apparently doomed
to defeat. What is clear is that the
anticipated ascendency of the Allies,
arising from their unrestricted re-
sources, appears to have been realized.

?' Stonewalling in France "

By General Sir Douglas Haig

At the beginning of the third year of
the war Sir Douglas Haig, Commander
in Chief of the British Armies in France,
made the following statement in the
presence of press correspondents:

THE tide has turned. Time has been
with the Allies from the first. It
is only a question of more time till
we win a decisive victory, which is the
one sure way to bring peace in this as in
other wars. Until this victory is won it
ill becomes a British soldier in France to
think of peace.

The problem of the first Summer's
campaign and the second for the Allies
was to hold the Germans from forcing a
decision with their ready numbers of
men, guns, and shells. Whether it was
the able Generalship and heroism of the
French on the Marne, the dogged retreat
of the little British expeditionary force
from Mons, the stubborn resistance of the
French and British to the Germans' ef-
fort for the Channel ports, the Russian
retreat last Summer, Belgium's or Ser-
bia's sacrifice, Italy's stonewalling
against Austria's offensive or France's
immortal defense of Verdun, the purpose
was always to gain time for preparations
necessary to take the offensive away
from the enemy.

Our unpreparedness at the start of the
war, due to its unexpectedness, is no se-
cret. While France, which had a great
national army and universal service, was
giving all her strength, we had to begin
building from the bottom.

The majority of our best regular offi-

cers had been killed or wounded in the
early fighting. With the remainder as
a nucleus to drill and organize the vol-
unteers, who were raw but had the spirit
that quickeneth, we undertook to create
an army of millions, which must be offi-
cered largely by men of no military ex-
perience, to fight the German Army, with
its forty years of preparation.

Meanwhile we had to keep on stone-
walling in France with such troops as we
had ready against that prepared foe,
whose blows were the sturdier in his ef-
forts for a decision owing to his realiza-
tion that time was against him. Now
the new army has had its first practical
experience in attack on a large scale.

However well trained an army, how-
ever able its Generals, however ample
its artillery and munitions, the supreme
test in a war of this kind is its capacity,
unit by unit, for bearing heavy losses un-
flinchingly. Wherever sacrifice of life
was necessary, to the end these new
army men have borne it without waver-
ing and in manner worthy of the best
traditions of the Anglo-Saxon race when
it has had to fight for principles asso-
ciated with its history the world over.

[Turning to the map, he put his finger
first on Pozieres and then on Delville
Wood, where Britain's incessant struggle
has gained precious high ground, and
said:]

Here our men, after they had con-
quered the maze of trench fortifications
which the Germans had been a year and
a half in building, have fought under

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1125

field conditions, digging what cover they
could, withstanding counterattacks with
all the stubborness of the regulars at
Ypres, continuing to advance, putting
their skill, courage, and resources against
those of an army with forty years of
preparation. Their confidence that as
man to man, with equally good artillery
support, they were the superior of the
German has been justified by the event.
They feel that they have taken the meas-
ure of the Germans.

In relation to our own losses they
have been severe in the instance of some
units whose steadiness in the face of a
most galling fire has insured reliance on
the others under a similar test. I may
say that the total for the month of July

to date, in the midst of a continuous of-
fensive, has been less than five times the
total in June, when we were in our
trenches.

The third year of the war will be the
Allies' year. No less than France, now
that we are ready, we shall give all the
strength there is in us to drive the in-
vader from her soil and that of Belgium.
England will not achieve her full strength
on land, however, until next Summer.

All those who believe that our cause
is the cause of civilization may rest as-
sured that this army has no thought ex-
cept to go on delivering blow after blow
until we have won that victory by force
of arms which will insure an enduring
peace.

British Deeds in the Critical Year

By Sir Gilbert Parker

Novelist and Member of Parliament

LOOKING back at the end of the sec-
ond year, one is forced to wonder
how Germany was stayed in her
march of conquest. According to every
rule she should have been in Paris at the
time she herself appointed — early in the
Autumn of 1914. She came very near it.

What stopped her? She had left out
of her calculations the strategical skill
which belongs by nature to the French
Army, the new French Army, from be-
hind Paris, and " the contemptible little
British Army."

It is a remarkable thing that on the
western front the only gains of Germany
were achieved in the first few weeks of
the war. Those gains were of immense
strategical value to her. They included
the mining and industrial districts of
France and nearly the whole of Belgium,
from which she has steadily drawn prac-
tical support and advantage and supplies.
The wonder is not that the Allies have
done so well, but that, with all her
preparations and her perfect armament,
Germany and her obedient colleagues,
Austria and Turkey and Bulgaria, have
done so badly.

Apparently at the beginning of the war

everything was in their hands, everything
except one — the British Navy. If Ger-
many could have mastered her as she
mastered Belgium and a goodly portion
of France the war would long since have
been over. France would have been
a third-rate power under practical
German control; Russia would have been
driven back into her steppes and plains,
once more the slave of German influence
and control, and the British Empire as we
know it would have become a thing of the
past.

What the British Navy did was to
sweep German merchant commerce from
the seas, prevent Germany from trading
with the rest of the world, except by
crooked methods, bottle up her fleet to
uselessness, drive her South Atlantic
fleet to the bottom of the sea, and throt-
tle and choke German export to an ex-
tent that great cities like Hamburg have
lost the hum of their activity, and, out-
side the Baltic Sea, there is no stir of
German commerce, save in a freakish
enterprise like that of the Deutschland.
Those, however, who count the work of
the Deutschland as extraordinary should
remember that it is not original, since a

1126

CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

considerable number of British submarines
have crossed the Atlantic during the last
year safely and surely. It is not strange
that the Deutschland accomplished its
feat. It will be very strange, however,
if that feat is repeated by many sister
submarines.

German foreign commerce cannot be
rehabilitated by the activities of subma-
rines. Since the battle of Jutland it can
be safely and surely said that the seas
are still controlled overwhelmingly by
the British fleet. The German fleet came
out, and then fled to cover again after a
stiff fight.

But let us now take the field of bat-
tle on the western front. For a whole
year or more critics in the United States,
whose only idea of warfare was that of
constant action, have continuously asked
why was it Great Britain, which had re-
cruited between three and four million
men, should be doing nothing on the
western front. They complained that
France was left alone at Verdun and else-
where.- They did not realize that France
knew she had at her disposal at any mo-
ment the British troops which were hold-
ing their own line of the front and stead-
ily extending it. They did not remember
that at the beginning of the war Great
Britain was armed on a basis of a mere
handful of men; that all the machinery of
equipment was upon a basis of the hand-
ful, and that having men — a million or
two millions — she still could not equip
them, because she had not factories of
munitions except upon the scale of the
handful.

Men had to be recruited, fed, uni-
formed, equipped; artillery had to be de-
veloped and extended beyond all experi-
ence of the past. Rifles had to be sup-
plied. And the one reason why there
was such delay in making a move on the
western front by the British was lack
of equipment. The push forward at Loos
was not final and effective because there
were not sufficient munitions.

But what is the condition of affairs
today? There are enough munitions.
Why? Because big men have given their
brains and skill to the task of organiza-
tion; because the manual workers of
England have roused themselves to a

complete sense of duty; because they
have given up trade union regulations
for the period of the war; because, with-
out murmuring, they have thrown up
their holidays; because hundreds and
thousands of women have joined the mu-
nitions works or have entered into fields
of occupation formerly monopolized by
men, euch as the conduction of cars on
tram lines, driving vans, working upon
farms, clerking in offices, doing men's
work in scores of small trades; because
all England, in every corner of it, is alive
to the terrible significance of the world
fight and has given its best blood, mind,
strength, and craft to the nation's cause.

In spite of criticism and complaint
England would not and did not move on
the western front until she was ready,
although she was ready to help at Ver-
dun if needed, and said so. And she
was not ready until she could dominate,
as she has done, the German artillery
by a greater ^weight of metal; until,
making a move forward over the whole
of her line, they both could make good
their successes, mile by mile, and steadily
and surely diminish the capacity of re-
sistance upon the part of Germany. This
they have done.

What is the position today? Every
one of the Allies has moved forward
and at the same time, and every one has
succeeded, as she has moved. Italy,
like Russia, France, and England else-
where, has succeeded in her field
against Austria. Germany cannot put
forward her men to help Austria. Aus-
tria is harassed by Italy and by Russia.
Germany is harassed and hammered by
England, Russia, France, and Belgium.

There is no rest for Germany any-
where. She cannot shift her troops from
front to front, as she did in the early
days of the war, smashing one enemy
here and then whisking her troops over
to smash another enemy there.

Mistakes? The Allies no doubt have
made mistakes, but England has made
no such mistakes as have been made
by Germany, all of whose plans have
gone awry. England was expected to,
and promised to, furnish 150,000 men
for the protection of Belgium in case
of a European war — and that was all.

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

11-27

She has, in fact, provided an army and
navy personnel of nearly 5,000,000 men
and has trebled the personnel of her
fleet. Could any other nation in the
world furnish over 4,000,000 men on a
voluntary basis, as Great Britain has
done?

Americans should understand that it
is not alone in the field of battle that
Great Britain has proved her capacity
for organization. She has proved it in
the civil field; she has nationalized the
railways of the country and has paid
the regular dividends; she secured the
sugar crop of the world at the very be-
ginning of the war, through which sugar
is cheaper today in Great Britain than
it is in the United States, and at the
same time has got out of it a revenue
of nearly $34,000,000.

She rescued the British people from
being done by meat trusts by seizing
all ships which could carry chilled meat,
and, having the ships, she could get her
meat on fair terms, and has done so —
50,000 tons a month for Great Britain
and France, and 10,000 tons for Italy.
She has also supplied France with steel,
boots, shoes, and uniforms. She has
made coal a public military service, and
by act of Parliament has fixed the profit
of the coal mines, and she supplies the
British, French, and Italian Navies with
coal. She has organized the purchase of
wheat, by a small committee, which also
buys and ships wheat and oats, fodder,

&c., for Italy. She has bought up the
fish supply of Norway, and very lately
bought up against German intrigue the
great bulk of food exports of Holland.

She has put on a 5 shilling income
tax, which has been paid without protest
by the mass of the British people. She
has drawn upon her financial resources
till she has loaned her allies and her
oversea dominions £450,000,000, and she
has taken as high as 80 per cent, of the
war profits of the great manufacturing
firms.

The organization of Great Britain is
not ornate and spectacular, but there
never was a time when all the people of
the country were so occupied in national
things, when so many have given them-
selves up, without pay or reward, to do-
ing national work. Her power of organ-
ization is proved thoroughly by the work
of the Ministry of Munitions, which, un-
der the indefatigable Mr. Lloyd George,
has increased the three Government mu-
nition factories before the war to 4,000
establishments, with 2,000,000 workers;
has arranged canteens for 500,000 people,
and has erected twenty national work-
shops, with, in one case, a population of
50,000 people.

As for manufacture — in a fortnight as
many heavy shells can be made as were
made in the first year of the war. Great
Britain has shown her ancient skill for
organization in a new and successful

Russia's Two Great Campaigns

Striking Change in the Outlook

Following is a summary of the situa-
tion as seen by various Russian officials
and military experts:

THE beginning of the third year of the
war finds Russia on the offensive
along a large part of her western
front. In the Caucasus Russian forces
are pushing westward well beyond Erze-
rum and southward toward the Mesopo-
tamian border. Her armies have been re-
organized and strengthened, and the
shortage of ammunition, which was re-

sponsible for one of the most spectacu-
lar and at the same time one of the
most successfully conducted retreats in
history, has been remedied. Today she
has shells, cannon, and small arms in
abundance. Her munition factories have
been improved and enlarged and are
putting out large quantities of war ma-
terials in addition to the enormous ship-
ments arriving from abroad. The per-
sonnel of the troops is as high, if not
higher, than it was a year ago*, The

1128 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

present financial needs have been ad-
justed through loans placed in England,
France, and America.

The outlook today presents a striking
contrast to that of last August, which
saw the fall of Warsaw and the con-
tinuation of the retirement of the Rus-
sian Armies, with the Germans and
Austrians, buoyed up with a long suc-
cession of victories, still fiercely engag-
ing in rear-guard attacks. The turning
point came early in the Fall. On Sept.
9 the Russians stopped the Austrians at
Tarnopol. The German wave of invasion
continued to roll onward, but in the latter
days of September it had spent its force.
The Russian Armies turned upon the en-
emy along the line of the Dwina, Bere-
zina, Shara, Styr, and Sereth Rivers and
checked them there. Desperate repeated
efforts of the Germans to capture Riga
and Dvinsk, in which they hoped to estab-
lish Winter bases, failed. They attacked
again and again throughout the Win-
ter, but the Russian line held — and still
holds.

Emperor Nicholas took personal com-
mand of the armies early in September,
and since then has been continuously at
General Staff headquarters here and
there along the front, counseling offi-
cers, cheering and encouraging the men.
He appointed General M. V. Alexeieff,
who was the right-hand man of General
Ivanoff in the latter's brilliant cam-
paign in Galicia during the Fall and
Winter of 1914, to be Chief of Staff,
and Grand Duke Nicholas, hitherto Com-
mander in Chief, was assigned to com-
mand in the Caucasus.

The Winter saw offensives and coun-
teroffensives locally in various sections
of the western front, but no definite ad-
vance was undertaken until January,
when the Russians moved forward
slightly along the 200-mile line from
Czartorysk to the Rumanian frontier —
the scene of General Brusiloff's recent
successes, but the Spring thaw put an
end to the movement, and the armies
settled into another period of inertia,
which lasted until the beginning of June,
when General Brusiloff, who had re-
cently been appointed successor to Gen-
eral Ivanoff as commander of the south-

ern armies, began the drive which car-
ried the Russian front forward to the
Stokhod and to Kolomea on the west,
and overran the entire province of the
Bukowina.

Meanwhile Grand Duke Nicholas had
been justifying the wisdom of his ap-
pointment to the command in the Cau-
casus. He reorganized the armies which
had been carrying the struggle against
the Turks with varying success since the
beginning of the war, and by New Year's
Day had started a campaign along defi-
nite lines. The Turks were driven back
upon Erzerum, and the Russians on Feb.
16, after overcoming what appeared to
be insurmountable obstacles in the way
of difficult mountainous country and
fearful weather conditions, forced the
surrender of Erzerum and scattered the
Turkish armies. In the succeeding
months they carried the advance beyond
Mamakhatum, fifty miles further west.
On April 19 Trebizond, an important port
on the Black Sea, capitulated. The more
recent capture of Baiburt, an important
stronghold between Trebizond and Ma-
makhatum, followed. To the southward
the armies occupied the greater part of
Kurdistan, including the cities of Bitlis,
Revanduz, Serdasht, Khanikin, and Ker-
manshah, constituting a front of 400
miles from the sea southeastward into
Western Persia. On July 25, or only a
few days ago, the Russians, after break-
ing up a Turkish attempt at an offensive,
occupied the important city of Erzengan.
Thus practically all Armenia is now in
their hands.

General Brusiloff's advance reached
its point of deepest penetration in the
Bukowina, where it pushed the enemy
back sixty-five miles and gained an aver-
age of twenty-five miles along a total
front of 275 miles from the Kovel-Sarny
Railway to Rumania. The Russian Com-
mander cut the forces under General
Pflanzer into pieces and shoved them
into the Carpathian Mountains; had
General Bothmer fighting on the de-
fensive west of the Stripa. General Ton
Boehm-Ermolli was driven out of Brody,
in Galicia, the eastern defense of Lem-
berg, while General von Linsingen and
Archduke Ferdinand are engaged in a /

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

life-and-death struggle along the Stok-
hod before Kovel.

General Brusiloff's stupendous bag of
prisoners, according to the latest esti-
mates, numbers 300,000 officers and men,
and this is still being increased by thou-

sands and tens of thousands from week
to week. It is declared that probably an
equal number have been put out of ac-
tion, counting the dead and wounded.
His booty in guns and equipment runs
into extravagant figures.

Italy's War in the High Alps

An Official Summary

Italy entered the war on May 23, 1915,
so that this retrospect, prepared by the
Italian War Office, covers fourteen
months :

WHEN the European war began
Italy held back for ten months,
respecting the alliance which for
a third of a century had bound her
to the Central Empires, But longer than
this she could not disregard the call of
the Entente Powers. They were fighting
for a principle of nationality to which
Italy is indebted for her existence. They
were fighting for principles of law and
justice of which Italy has been an ex-
ponent since the time of the Romans.

Furthermore, Italy could no longer de-
lay solution of the question of the Italian
provinces that were still subject to perse-
cution by Austria. It was imperative that
Italy should contest the frontier imposed
by Austria after the war of 1866 which
gave her northern neighbors possession
of all the gates and passes leading into
Italy. It was imperative also that Italy
should gain supremacy in the Adriatic,
without which she could never be said to
enjoy liberty and peace in full security.

Although unprepared for war, we for-
tunately possessed in General Cadorna a
powerful organizer and a cautious
strategist. Taking the Italian Army on
its modest peace footing as a backbone,
he transformed it, through miracles of
energy and military science, into a pow-
erful, efficient, brilliant modern army,
which on May 24, 1915, the day after war
was declared on Austria, suddenly threw
itself across the whole frontier into the
enemy's territory.

In doing this General Cadorna won two
principal advantages: First, he gained

the initiative of action; secondly, he made
Austria the scene of the warfare.
Throughout the campaign Cadorna aimed
to render his allies the greatest possible
services.

Italy began her operations just at
the time when the»Russians were obliged
to retreat. The strong army which
Cadorna threw across the northern bor-
der menacing Austria may have saved
that Russian retreat from a complete
disaster. Similarly, when the Germans
attacked Verdun Cadorna started a
strong offensive along the Isonzo River,
which prevented Austria from sending to
the aid of the German Crown Prince
large numbers of troops and artillery
which had been prepared for that pur-
pose.

Equal advantages have recently been
obtained by Austria's temporary in-
vasion of a small section of the Italian
Trentino front in the Asiago district. If
Austria had not centred all her forces in
this enterprise it would have been much
more difficult for Russia to launch the
marvelous offensive which she is now
conducting. Profiting by the situation,
General Cadorna attacked the Austrians
so energetically that their removal from
the Alps to the Carpathians to fight the
Russians has been out of the question.

In Albania General Cadorna likewise
aided our allies. It being materially im-
possible to save Serbia and Montenegro,
he transformed the Albanian seaport of
Avlona into an impregnable intrenched
camp, threatening and checking the Aus-
trians in the same manner that the
allied troops at Saloniki have held back
the Bulgarians.

Above all others in this war stands

1130 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

our King, modest soldier and fervent
patriot. He and King Albert are the
only sovereigns in this war who have
never abandoned their place at the
front.

The difficulties of the war which Italy
is waging may be understood only by
visiting our battle fronts. They are
stretched along the highest altitudes at
which warfare has ever been known.
With all the advantageous positions in
the prior possession of the Austrians,
our enemies have to be dug out of their
nests, 10,000 feet up amid eternal snows.
To her natural defenses Austria has add-
ed the most powerful modern system of
fortifications.

Still, the Italians have gained ground,
and all along have conquered territory
on the right bank of the Isonzo, except

at Gorizia and Tomlino, which are in-
trenched camps defended by almost im-
pregnable mountains, part of the Carso
plateau, the high Monte Nero Ridge, the
Ampezzo territory, including Cortina, and
part of the famous Dolomite Road, which
is the shortest communication between
Toblach and Trent. We had almost
reached Rovereto when the Austrian in-
cursion into Trentino obliged us to retreat
within our own frontier.

But with this exception the Austrians
have always been on the defensive, and
have lost about 200 towns and villages,
40,000 prisoners, dozens of cannon, hun-
dreds of machine guns, several thousand
rifles, all of which have more than ordi-
nary value, because they were taken in a
mountainous country, where it is difficult
to replace captured artillery and stores.

The Policies of Germany's Enemies

By the Berlin Foreign Office

Reviewing the political events of the
second year of the war, the German For-
eign Office issued the following state-
ment :

THE world war was caused by Rus-
sia's aggressive policy, supported
by France's policy of revenge. But
it was rendered possible solely by the
fact that England subordinated to her
economic antagonism to Germany all her
other interests. Whereas Germany's en-
emies regard it quite in order that they
demand territorial aggrandizements at
the cost of others — like Russia, who
wants Constantinople and Galicia; like
France, who desires Alsace-Lorraine and
the left bank of the Rhine, and like Italy,
who seeks Austrian territory — they
grudge Germany even that she strive to
develop herself economically in peaceable
competition, and they pronounce this an
unpardonable sin against the world's or-
der of things.

They are unwilling that Germany
should become great and strong, because
the other powers want to be the economic
masters of the world. Territorial and
economic aggrandizement has united

Germany's foes in a war of destruction
against us.

The second war year has brought these
true aims of our opponents into clearer
light. In Russia this is openly admitted,
they having an understanding with Eng-
land and wanting Constantinople as their
war goal. In France there is a war-mad
cry for Alsace-Lorraine. In England,
too, the mask has been dropped. It is
openly admitted that Belgium was only a
pretext to justify England's participation
in the war which was undertaken only
from self-interest.

Germany must be destroyed. Germany
shall never more raise her head econom-
ically nor militarily. In this way is the
goal of our enemy more clearly enun-
ciated during the second year of the
war.

It is equally clear that the talk of a
struggle of democracy against militar-
ism is only a catch-word used by our
enemies to create sentiment and to
cloak outwardly their real purpose of
destruction. Assuredly there can be no
talk of a struggle for the maintenance
of democratic principles when one side

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1131

sets out to destroy the enemy complete-
ly, including the civilian population.

And is England really the land of
democracy she pretends to be? Has
not the entire development of England
during the war shown that England is
drawing further than ever away from
democracy ?

Moreover, if England had really re-
sorted to war in defense of the rights
of the smaller nations, as she fondly
announces to the world, she could with-
out damage to her position have an-
swered otherwise than with the threat
of destroying Germany. Chancellor von
Bethmann Hollweg's remarks made in
the course of the year outlined German
aims with sufficient clearness. England,
therefore, wants a war of destruction, a
war to the knife which, according to the
plans of our enemies, shall continue even
after the cannon is silenced; for their
former talk about the permanent peace
that they wished to establish has been
drowned under the shout that Germany's
enemies are raising over the Paris Eco-
nomic Conference.

It is not enough that the world must
be shaken by a protracted, bloody war.
The world must not even thereafter en-
joy a settled peace if the will of the En-
tente Powers prevails, for the decisions
of the Economic Conference do not sig-
nify an economic peace, but a perma-
nent economic warfare which never will
permit the world to come to rest upon
the basis of peaceful competition.

This shows at the same time that the
great words of the Entente Powers about
fighting for the rights of smaller nations
and international order are empty sounds,
for when Germany's enemies seek to con-
trol neutral trade they simply ignore the
rights of other countries and base, not on
the principle of right, but upon pure
might, precisely what they allegedly
want to abolish.

The second year of the war therefore
shows that our enemies are precisely
what they all along wrongly reproached
Germany with being, namely, disturbers
of the peace. Russia, through her un-
bridled passion for extending her bor-
ders; England, through being uncontrol-
lable for dominating alone the economic

world, and France, through her passion
for revenge.

This second year of the war further
proved that it is our enemies who follow
the principle of might before right. They
show this in the more and more reckless
violations of the generally recognized
principles of international law, not only
in the struggle against the Central Pow-
ers, but still more in their treatment of
neutrals. * * *

One observes, therefore, in the second
war year increasing violations of the
rights of neutrals in the interests of
England and her allies. These violations
will also continue through the third war
year, and even increase, unless all signs
prove false. * * *

Germany proved in the last year, con-
trary to England's example, that in
attaining her end she seeks so far as
possible to avoid violating the just rights
of neutrals. She even went far toward
meeting the wishes of the United States
in her conduct of submarine warfare, in
spite of the fact that the enemy was
trying to subdue Germany through an
illegal war upon her peaceable popula-
tion.

Out of regard for the interests of
neutrals Germany relinquished for the
present one of her most effective
weapons against the enemy, although she
was compelled to wage a life-and-death
struggle.

At the opening of the third year of the
war Germany is able to look back to her
splendid military successes on water and
on land, which are not without political
importance. Germany and her allies re-
mained firmly united during the past
year in bonds of friendship and common
interests. Bulgaria, as the fourth mem-
ber, entered the alliance in October, 1915,
after having satisfactorily arranged mat-
ters with Turkey. Through the accession
of Bulgaria, which resulted in the sub-
jugation of Serbia, the way was opened
for the Central Powers from Berlin to
Constantinople and to Bagdad, an event
of far-reaching importance.

The alliance of the Central Powers
rests upon a community of political and
economic interests. It is an intrinsic
necessity for all four States and it guar-

1132 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

antees to them among themselves the
greatest advantages without in any way
threatening the interests of the others.

Building upon what she already has
achieved Germany treads the threshold of

th£ third year of the war with unshaken
confidence. But the goal has not yet
been reached, for the enemy has not yet
come to see the impossibility of subjugat-
ing Germany.

German Deeds On the High Seas

By Admiral von Holtzendorff

Chief of German Naval General Staff

naval warfare of the second year
__ of the war, which envy and a spirit
of revenge forced upon Germany
and her allies, has passed, the chief im-
pression left by it being increased Brit-
ish naval terrorism and the battle of the
Skagerrak. The neutral powers in 1916
were throttled more than in the first
year by the sea power of England, and
hindered in the justified exercise of their
commerce, postal rights, &c., by threats
and violence. The victory of the German
fleet over the British May 31 and June
1, therefore, was won in the interest of
all the neutrals and all those who are
dependent on the freedom of the seas.

While in the first year of the war
twenty proved violations of the law of
nations by enemy merchantmen (firing
upon German submarines, attempts to
ram them, &c.,) occurred, thirty-eight
such cases were reported in the second
year. Merchantmen owned by the Allies
therefore during the two years violated
in the grossest manner the rules of in-
ternational law no less than fifty-eight
times against our submarines. This can
be proved up to the hilt.

The warships of Germany's enemies
during the war have violated the law
of nations in three particularly extreme
cases, namely, the Kaiser Wilhelm der
Grosse, the Dresden, and the Albatross.
Two cases, the Baralong and the King
Stephen, must be characterized not only
as violations of the law of nations and
a breach of the most ordinary tenets of
humanity, but as common murder.
Countless cases in which British war-
ships have violated international law in
their conduct against merchantmen
owned by the Central Powers or neu-
trals cannot be enumerated.

During the second year of the war the
British and their allies lost 22 warships
of a total of 266,320 tons and Germany
and her allies 10 warships of 82,210 tons.
The total losses for the two years of the
war are: Great Britain and her allies, 49
ships of 562,250 tons, and Germany and
her allies, 30 ships of 191,321 tons. Of
these losses England alone had 40 ships
of 485,220 tons and Germany alone 25
ships of 162,676 tons.

The British losses comprised 11 battle-
ships, 17 armored cruisers, and 12 pro-
tected cruisers. The battleships include
the Audacious, the loss of which has not
yet been officially announced, and a ship
of the Queen Elizabeth class. The cruis-
ers include the still contested loss of the
Tiger and the destruction of an armored
cruiser of the Cressy class on the night
of May 31, which was established by ob-
servations from almost the entire Ger- .
man fleet, and two small cruisers in the
battle of Skagerrak.

Furthermore, during the year preced-
ing June 30, 879 enemy merchantmen, of
a total of 1,816,682 gross tons, were lost
as a consequence of war measures of the
Central Powers, which brings the total
for the war up to July 1 to 1,303 enemy
merchantment of 2,574,205 tons, not in-
cluding enemy merchantmen confiscated
in the harbors of the Central Powers.

The total result of the two years' war
for England and her allies is a loss in
material and prestige which canaot be
made good. This great and unexpected
success of the German fleet and confed-
erated naval forces deserves the more
consideration because the strength of
warships afloat or under construction at
the beginning of the war for the enemy
fleets was 443 vessels of 5,428,000 tons,

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1133

excluding auxiliary cruisers, destroyers,
submarines, and other armed craft, of
which England alone had far more than
2,000 in service. Against these vessels
Germany and her allies could oppose 156

similar ships of 1,651,000 tons. The Cen-
tral Powers therefore have inflicted on
an enemy three and a third times strong-
er than them losses in large warships
almost triple their own.

Review of the Year's Naval Battles

By Captain Persius

Leading German Naval Critic

IT seemed likely that the second year
of the war would end without a sea
fight' of the first magnitude, but
May 31 brought a gratifying proof that
our great battleships were not built in
vain, and that our fleet, despite seeming
inactivity, was quietly and assiduously
preparing itself for a blow against the
strongest sea power in the world. We
still hear the question asked as to who
was the real victor in the fight off Skag-
errak. A comparison of the clear, concise
reports of the German Admiralty Staff
with Admiral Jellicoe's long-winded re-
ports, which contain only a few facts,
leaves no doubt that the German official
account gives a thoroughly truthful de-
scription of the battle. The English ver-
sion, with its barrenness of facts, labors
in vain to conceal its improbability.

Whatever the final judgment is of the
battle in detail the loss of British prestige
at sea and the pronounced success of our
fleet remain indisputable if only the
British losses in men and ships are con-
sidered. The waves of the North Sea
swallowed 6,104 British seamen and 117,-
150 gross registered tons of shipping,
while the German losses were 2,414 men
and 60,720 tons. These figures were of-
ficially published on both the German and
British sides.

Numberless authorities, both hostile
and neutral, have expressed opinions on
the battle, but the German people will not
permit themselves to be influenced by any
foreign judgment. They understand
alone how proud they may be of a navy
whose quality and honor have stood
the test of battle with the strongest sea
power. They know that Chancellor von
Bethmann Hollweg rightly expressed the

general sentiment in his speech in the
Reichstag on June 5 when he said: " This
victory, too, shall not make us vain-
glorious. We know that England is not
subdued or conquered by this battle."

By the side of the battle of the Skag-
errak the other events in the second year
of the war, navally speaking, pale into
insignificance. In the first year the activ-
ity of German submarines aroused gen-
eral astonishment. In the second year
their activity was sharply circumscribed,
but nevertheless their successes in war
upon commerce were considerable in com-
parison with those of the first year.

On the other hand, the destruction of
warships by submarines occurred but sel-
dom. The U-27 destroyed an English pro-
tected cruiser in the North Sea on Aug.
10, 1915. Another of our boats sank the
French armored cruiser Amiral Charnier
in the Eastern Mediterranean on Feb. 8,
1916. A number of minor war vessels
were also sunk.

English submarines did some damage
to German commerce in the Baltic and
succeeded in torpedoing several of our
warships like the armored cruiser Prince
Adalbert, Oct. 23; Undine, Nov. 7, and
Bremen, Dec. 17.

Special attention is merited by the bold
flights of our marine aircraft and their
important scout work in the North Sea
and Baltic. Attacks were made against
fortified places on England's east coast
and the English were able to destroy only
two German airships, No. 15 on April 1,
aM No. 7 on May 4. Within a few hours
^ar airships were able to reconnoitre the
entire North Sea and they did valuable
service in the battle off Skagerrak. Ma-
rine aeroplanes also did excellent work

1134 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

and especially distinguished themselves
in the Baltic where they were of the ut-
most value in various ways. On several
occasions they were able even to take the
offensive with success, damaging war-
ships with bombs and capturing mer-
chantmen.

In the Black Sea and the Mediterraean
German submarines, working with those
of Austria-Hungary, operated success-
fully in war against commerce and de-
stroyed numerous transports laden with
troops and war material. In the Black
Sea the Yawuz Sultan Selim, formerly
the German cruiser Goeben, and the Mid-
ullu, formerly the German cruiser Bres-
lau, bombarded Russian fortified towns
on the Crimean coast at various times
and damaged Russian commerce.

The glorious deeds of several German
auxiliary cruisers remain to be men-
tioned. The Mowe, under the command
of Count von Dohna, made a success-
ful raid into the Atlantic in January
and February. The Appam, one of the
steamers captured by it, carried the pas-

sengers and crew of other captured
merchantmen to the United States under
the command of Lieutenant Berg. The
Mowe herself made her home port
safely on March 4 laden with booty.
The auxiliary cruisers Meteor and Greif
destroyed on Aug. 7 and Feb. 29, re-
spectively, the much stronger armed
British auxiliaries Ramsey and Alcan-
tara.

On the threshold of the third year of
the war it remains to be pointed out
that the German Navy has hitherto ful-
filled its chief task of keeping the enemy
from German coasts, and, beyond this,
has scored a series of successes that
have exceeded our most sanguine ex-
pectations. The German people do not
ignore the fact that British sea power
still dominates the seas, but neverthe-
less they look with confidence upon their
navy. They expect it to show itself
able and willing to win victories in the
third year of the war. as it has done
hitherto and thus contribute its part
toward the general aim of securing an
honorable peace.

Jutland and the Turn of the Tide

By Arthur J. Balfour

First Lord of the British Admiralty

E second anniversary of the British
_ declaration of war provides a fitting
opportunity for a brief survey of
the present naval situation. The conse-
quences, material and moral, of the Jut-
land battle cannot be easily overlooked;
an allied diplomatist assured me that he
considered it the turning point of the
war.

The tide, which had long ceased to help
our enemies, began from that moment to
flow strongly in our favor. This much,
at least, is true that every week which
has passed since the German fleet was
driven, damaged, into port has seen new
successes for the Allies in one part or
other of the field of operations. It womJ
be an error, however, to suppose that the
naval victory changed the situation;
what it did was to confirm it.

Before the Jutland battle, as after, the
German fleet was imprisoned. The battle
was an attempt to break the bars and
burst the confining gates. It failed, and
with its failure the High Seas Fleet sank
again into impotence. The Germans
claim Jutland as a victory, but in essence
they admit the contrary, since the object
of a naval battle is to obtain command of
the sea; and it is certain that Germany
has not obtained that command, while
Great Britain has not lost it. Tests of
this assertion are easy to apply. Has the
grip of the British blockade relaxed since^
May 31? Has it not, on the contrary,
tightened?

The Germans themselves will admit
the increasing difficulty of importing
raw materials and foodstuffs and of ex-
porting their manufactures; hence, the

SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR

1135

violence of their invectives against Great
Britain.

[Mr. Balfour argues that if they, had
felt themselves on the way to maritime
equality the Germans would not have
so loudly advertised the Deutschland inci-
dent, the whole interest of which, in Ger-
man eyes, was to prove their ability to
elude the barrier raised by the British
fleet between them and the outer world.
He advises those requiring further proofs
of the value the Germans attach to their
" victorious fleet " to study the German
policy of submarine warfare, and says:]

The advantage of submarine attacks
on commerce is that they cannot be con-
trolled by superior fleet power in the
same way as attacks by cruisers; a dis-
advantage is that they cannot be carried
out on a large scale consistently with the
laws of war or the requirements of hu-
manity. They make, therefore, a double
appeal to German militarism — an appeal
to its prudence and an appeal to its bru-
tality."

The Germans know that their victori-
ous fleet was useless. It could be kept
safe in harbor while the submarine war-
fare went on merrily outside. They
knew that submarines cannot be brought
to action by battleships or battle cruis-
ers. They thought, therefore, that to
these new commerce destroyers our mer-
chant ships must fall an easy prey, un-
protected by our ships of war and unable
to protect themselves.

They were wrong in both respects, and
doubtless it is their wrath at the skill

and energy with which British merchant
Captains and British crews have de-
fended the lives and property under their
charge that has driven the German Ad-
miralty into their latest and stupidest
act of calculated ferocity — the judicial
murder of Captain Fryatt. * * *

What blunderers they are! They know
how to manipulate machines, but of man-
aging men they know less than nothing.
They are always wrong, because they al-
ways suppose that if they behave like
brutes they can cow their enemies into
behaving like cowards. Small is their
knowledge of our merchant seamen. I
doubt whether one can be found who has
not resolved to defend himself to the last
against piratical attack. But if there is
such a one, depend upon it, he will be
cured by the last exhibition of German
civilization. And what must neutrals
think of all this?

The freedom of the sea means to Ger-
many that the German Navy is to behave
at sea as the German Army behaves on
land. It means that neither enemy
civilians nor neutrals may possess rights
against militant Germany; that those
who do not resist will be drowned, and
those who do will be shot.

Already 244 neutral merchantmen have
been sunk in defiance of law and human-
ity, and the number daily grows. Man-
kind, with the experience of two years
of war behind it, has made up its mind
about German culture. It is not, I think,
without material for forming a judgment
about German freedom.

Two Explanations of the Battle of

Jutland

A Berlin dispatch in the Hamburger
Fremdenblatt, evidently with official
sanction, offers the following diagram-
matic explanation of the great naval en-
gagement of May 31 in the North Sea.
The numbers in the text refer to the
arrows representing the tactical moves
of the opposing fleets. These diagrams,
as well as the text, ivill be found to be
objects of lively controversy in the Brit-
ish official commentary, ivhich is also
presented herewith.

I.— THE GERMAN VIEW

IN its official report of June 5 the
German Admiralty Staff has de-
scribed in brief outlines the vic-
torious course of the naval battle at
the Skagerrak. This account is confirmed
in all details upon the basis of the more
precise information which has since been
received. The accompanying sketches
illustrate in four periods the chief indi-
vidual phases of the battle, while the
accompanying map shows plainly the
strategic importance of the German vic-
tory for the war position in the North
Sea.

/ v

On May 31, at 4:35 P. M., our cruisers
(1), proceeding ahead of the High Seas
Fleet, sighted, seventy nautical miles to
southwest of the Skagerrak, four small
English cruisers of the Calliope class

(2), which ran at highest speed north-
ward, pursued by our cruisers.

At 5:30 our pursuing cruisers sight to
the westward two further enemy columns
(3), consisting of six battle cruisers, a
considerable number of small cruisers
and destroyers. Our cruisers take a
course toward the new opponent — this
becoming a course toward the south.

\ "<(
* \ \

Our cruisers (1) (compare also sketch
1) have advanced to thirteen kilometers
from the English battle cruisers and
destroyers, which meanwhile have moved
southward (2), and open fire on souther-
ly to southeasterly courses. In the course
of this fight two English battle cruisers
and a destroyer were sunk. After half
an hour's fighting powerful new enemy
forces come in sight from the north of
the enemy; they prove to be five ships
of the Queen Elizabeth class (3). At
the same time the main German force (4)
approaches from the south and intervenes
in the fight. Our cruisers place them-
selves ahead of their own main force.

The five big ships of the Queen Elizabeth
class (compare sketch 2) have attached
themselves to the enemy cruisers. The
whole combined German fleet (1) is now
steering northward, and in face of its
attack the enemy (2) immediately turns

TWO EXPLANATIONS OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 1137

away to the north, and attempts at the
highest speed to escape from our ex-
tremely effective fire, and at the same
time, with an easterly course, and em-
ploying its speed, which is superior to
that of our fleet as a whole, to pass (3)
the head of our line, while the German
battleship squadron in the rear of the
line cannot yet get into action with the
enemy. Our fleet, the cruisers still lead-
ing, follows the movement of the enemy
at highest speed. An English cruiser of
the Achilles class and two destroyers are
sunk. This period of the battle lasts
some two and a half hours.

Meanwhile, there approaches from the
north, presumably coming from Nor-
wegian waters, the English main force,
consisting of more than twenty battle-
ships (4).

Toward 10 o'clock all the German ships
(1) are together facing the whole Eng-
lish fleet. At a distance of some fifteen
nautical miles the battle now pursues
its course eastward. While the English
cruiser fleet (2) continues its attempts
to catch up the head of our line, Admiral
Jellicoe is striving to put himself with
his large battleships (3) like the cross of
a T in front of the head of our line. As
the head of our line thus comes for a
time under fire from both sides, Admiral
Scheer throws the German line round
on to a westerly course, and at the same
time our torpedo boat flotillas (marked
with triangles in the sketch) are ordered
to attack the enemy, and they do so
three times in succession with splendid
vigor and visible success. A number of
the large English battleships suffer
severe damage, and one sinks before our
eyes. By these attacks the English main
fleet is driven away to the east, whence
it will afterward have taken a north-
westerly course homeward. The German
fleet ceases its violent cannonade at
11:30, as the English had already stopped
firing, and after nightfall there was
nothing but the flash of their salvoes to
give us a target. As the enemy cannot
be found again the main battle is broken
off.

The climax of the battle is reached.

| 1 Area of Battle

Batt/ef/e/(/& Courseof Vain fiction
Course of German F/ect's Advance
Course of British Fleets Retreat

During the night numerous cruiser
fights and torpedo boat attacks develop

1138 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

against individual enemy ships, which
either had gone astray or had been
ordered to worry us and to cover the re-
treat of the English. In these actions
an enemy battle cruiser, a cruiser of the
Achilles or Shannon class, several small
enemy cruisers, and at least ten destroy-
ers are sunk — six of them by the West-
falen alone.

A squadron of English battleships
came up from the south, but not until
June 1, after the battle was over, and it
turned away without coming into action
or even coming in sight of the main
German force. It was observed by one
of our Zeppelins, which, as is well known,
owing to the foggy weather on the pre-
vious day, could not make reconnois-
sances until June 1.

II.— THE BRITISH VIEW

A British naval authority, writing
with official sanction for The London
Daily News, interprets Admiral Jellicoe's
report in a very different diagram and
commentary :

Seen in its broadest aspect, the battle
of Jutland stands out as a case of a
tactical division of the fleet, which had
the effect of bringing an unwilling enemy
to battle. Such a method of forcing an
action is drastic and necessarily attended
with risk, but for great ends great risks
must be taken, and in this case the risk
was far less great than that which St.
Vincent accepted off Cadiz, and that
division gave us the battle of the Nile,
the most complete and least debated of
British victories. Then the two portions
of St. Vincent's fleet were divided
strategically with no prospect of tactical
concentration for the battle.

In the present case there was only an
appearance of division. The battle fleet
was to the north and the battle cruiser
fleet to the south, but they formed in
fact one fleet under a single command
acting in combination. They were actu-
ally carrying out, as they had been in
the habit of doing periodically, a com-
bined sweep of the North Sea, and Ad-
miral Beatty's fleet was in effect the
observation or advanced squadron. The
measure of the risk, should he have the
fortune to find the enemy at sea, was

the length of the period which must
necessarily elapse before the Commander
in Chief would be able to join the battle.
It was a risk that would be measured
mainly by the skill with which Admiral
Beatty could entice the enemy northward,
without being overwhelmed by superior
force.

In the light of this outstanding feature
the action will be judged, and the han-
dling of the battle cruiser fleet and the
splendid group of four battleships that
was attached to it appraised.

When Admiral Beatty got contact with
the German battle cruisers they were
proceeding northward and, being inferior
to his force, they turned to the south-
ward. The inference was they were
either trying to escape or bent on leading
him into danger. When such a doubt
occurs there is in the British tradition a
golden rule, and that is to attack " the
enemy in sight." It was the rule that
Nelson consecrated, and it was good
enough for Admiral Beatty. He engaged
and continued to engage as closely as he
could till he found the enemy's battle
fleet coming north. Then he turned, but
he did not break off the action. The
enemy was in overwhelming force, but by
the golden rule it was his duty to cling
to them as long as his teeth would hold.
They had spread a net for him, and it
was for him to see that they fell into the
midst of it themselves. It was a task
that demanded some courage. Yet he
did not flinch, but continued the fight to
the northward, and signaled the four
Queen Elizabeths to turn sixteen points.

Now was the hour of greatest risk,
but he was well disposed for concentrat-
ing on the van of the enemy's line, and
the Commander in Chief was hurrying
down at full speed. For an hour and a
half the unequal battle raged as Admiral
Beatty and Admiral Evan-Thomas led
the enemy on, before Admiral Hood could
appear with his battle cruiser squadron.
The action was then at its hottest, but
Admiral Hood, without a moment's hesi-
tation, and in a manner that excited the
high admiration of all who were privi-
leged to witness it, placed his ships in
line ahead of Admiral Beatty's squadron.
No Admiral ever crowned an all too short

TWO EXPLANATIONS OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND

1139

LITTLE FISHER
BANK

ibpaL
mBuke

'JUTLAND
BANK

British Battle

British Battle
Crmserss — .->.

This chart must be taken as diagrammatic only, and as a general indication of the course
of the battle from the time when the opposing battle cruisers sighted each other (3:30) until,
owing to the growing darkness and the dispersal of the enemy's forces, it became impossible
to continue the action as an organized whole. Sir David Beatty's successful manoeuvre in
doubling the head of the enemy's line, and, reinforced by the battle fleet, establishing himself
between the Germans and the Danish coast, is graphically shown. The enemy was compelled
not only to make a complete turn, but to cross his original course almost at right angles after
circling, and when the battle proper came to an end soon after 8 :30 the bulk of the German
fleet was heading southwest into the open sea with the British fleet between it and its bases.

It is amusing to recall that the most " authentic " German plan of this stage of the battle
shows one arrow stretching from Denmark toward the Orkneys to indicate the line of the
British retreat, and another from Heligoland, pointing north, to represent the Germans in
chase. For comparative purposes it may be pointed out that the distance from Heligoland to
Blaavand Point is ninety-three miles. The official tracks, of the British fleet end at daylight
on June 1, but it will be observed from Sir John Jellicoe's report that it was not until 1:15
P. M. that " course was shaped for our bases."

career more devotedly or in a manner
more worthy of the name he bore.

With his fine manoeuvre the risk was
in a measure reduced, but there still re-
mained the more delicate work of the
Grand Fleet effecting its junction and
entering the ill-defined action. With the
exact position of the enemy's fleet shroud-
ed in smoke and in the gathering mist,
the danger of interference was very great,
and before the Commander in Chief lay a

task as difficult as any Admiral could be
called upon to perform. To the last mo-
ment he kept his fleet in steaming order,
so as to preserve up till the end the
utmost freedom of deployment, but by
what precise manoeuvres the deployment
was carried out must for obvious reasons
be left in a mist as deep as that which
was hiding all that was most important
for him to know. Suffice it to say that
the junction was effected with consum-

1140 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

mate judgment and dexterity. So nicely
was it timed that the deployment was
barely completed when, at 6:15 P. M., the
first battle squadron came into action
with the enemy, who had by that time
turned to the eastward and was already
attempting to avoid action.

Thus the fine combination had succeed-
ed, and the unwilling enemy had been
brought to action against the concen-
trated British fleet. They had fallen into
the midst of the net which had been
drawn about them, but in the plan of the
sweep there was inherent the inevitable
limitation that the time left for complet-
ing the business could but barely suffice.
There were hardly three hours of day-
light left, and, as darkness approached,
the action must be broken off unless a
needless chance were to be given to the
enemy for redressing his battle in-
feriority. Still our battle fleet was be-
tween the enemy and his base, and there
would have been little hope of his escap-
ing a decisive defeat but for the mist that
robbed those who had prepared for the
chance, and those who had seized it with
so much skill and boldness, of the harvest
they deserved.

It was a beaten and broken fleet that
escaped the trap. It had lost many units,
its gunnery had gone to pieces, and no
one can blame its discretion if it fairly
ran for home and left the British fleet
once more in undisputed command of the
North Sea.

For that, in a word, was the result of
the battle. What it was the enemy hoped
to achieve we cannot tell. Whatever their

effort meant it failed to shake our hold
upon the sea, and that is what really
matters. We have fought many inde-
cisive actions, but few in which the
strategical result was so indisputable,
few which more fully freed us of all fear
of what the enemy's fleet could do. It is
by such standards that history judges
victories, and by such standards the
country cherished the memory of the
men that prepared and won them. Cur-
rent opinion will always prefer the test
of comparative losses. Let this be ap-
plied, and it will be found that the battle
off Jutland will well hold its own against
all but a few of our most famous vic-
tories— none of which we obtained on a
first attempt.

From another aspect it is clear the
battle can rank beside any in our history.
In the fringes of the fight, in the work,
that is, of cruisers, light cruisers, and
destroyers, officers and men had chances
such as their ancestors never knew, and
they seized them with all the daring, the
skill, and the devotion that the greatest
of their predecessors could have hoped.
From the vigorous offensive against the
enemy's cruisers which cost Admiral Ar-
buthnot his life, to the least conspicuous
of the destroyer exploits, all was of the
same pattern. It is impossible to read of
what they did and what they failed to
do without feeling there is one thing at
least which the battle has given us, and
that is the assurance that the old spirit
is still alive and vigorous. It is able and
willing to do all the old navy could do,
and in the battle of Jutland, as we now
know, it has done it.

Fifty Billions, Cost of Two Years' War

War Loans in Detail

f I ^ HE belligerents have borrowed ap- Cost to Aug. i. Daily Cost.

proximately $40,000,000,000 in Germany 11,500,000,000 22,000,000

1 their two years of war and have
spent some $10,000,000,000 more

from their own exchequers or from their Total Cent. Pow.$i6,960,ooo,ooo $35,500,000

creations of paper money. The total of Grand total 49,890,000,000 107,500,000

$50,000,000,000 compares with the gener- LOANS DUE TO THE WAR

ally accepted estimate of $5,000,000,000 as ALLIED LOANS

the cost of our civil war. Two years of British Empire.

the European war have cost ten times as ^%£?*~.™Z w>raMlooooo

much as four years Of our civil War. Second war loan 4%s on 4.58 per

The debt of Great Britain, France cent- basis 2,970,000,000

Russia Italy, Germany, Austria, and SS%JS" *£•£•£'. ?;™Z

Turkey has increased from $27,273,000,- Exchequer 3s, due 1920 239,710,000

000 to $66,638,000,000 in the two years. War expenditure certificates to

Great Britain, France, and Germany June 30 50,663,000

have each added more than $14,000,000- 2ther war debt to June 30 121,000,000

AAA j. XT. vv,wu, Estimate to Aug. 1 600000000

000 to the sums they are bound to pay, Half of Anglo French loan in

Great Britain leading with more than United States 250,000,000

$15,000,000,000 of war indebtedness. Banking credit in Canada 101,000,000

Neutral nations, constrained to mobilize Bankins credit in United states. *50,000,ooo

have borrowed nearly half a billion. ^onT..!^! " ^.f^ 25,000,000

The following tables, Compiled by Canadian one and two year 5s

John Barnes, bond editor of The Wall in United states 45,000,000

Street Journal, give figures that tell the ~S ,'„' u'nHea' ^ef^" 75,000.000

Storv< Canadian ten-year internal 5V2s

DEBTS IN 1914 AND 1916 at 971/2 100,000,000

(000 omitted ) Indian Government internal 4s. 15,000,000

Indian Treasury bills in London 17,500,000

r p . w ., . Pre-War Debt. Pres. Debt. Australian 5s, at 99, in London. 10.000,000

Great Britain ^,485,000 $15,106,000 Australian internal loan 50.000 000

Huass-ae ;::;::::::;::::: 1SSS 'SXSS Australi- second "uoan. **•*»•*»

Italy 2'836'000 4.301.000 Total.... $11,620,971,000

Total for Allies $17,405,000 $44,736,000

Germany, (emp. & Sts.). 5,198,000 14,291,000 ' Loan of Victory " 5s at 87 on

Austria-Hungary 3,970,000 6,757,500 5.75 per cent, basis $3,100,000,000

Turkey 640000 854000 National defense bonds *1, 700,000,000

" ' ' National defense obligations... *300,000,000

Central Powers $9,808,000 $21,902,500 Advances from Bank of France

Grand total 27,273,000 66,638,500 to June ^ 1,580,000,000

Includes advances from Bank of France. Estimated to Aug. 1 500,000,000

Advances Bank of France to

COST FOR TWO TEARS AND BY foreign Governments 228,000,000

, THE DAY Bonds and notes in London.... 506,000,000

Cost to Aug. 1. Daily Cost. Half Anglo-French loan in U. S. 250,000,000

Great Britain $11,190,000,000 $25,000,000 Collateral loan in United States 100,000,000

France 9,000,000,000 17,000,000 One-year 5 per cent, notes in

Russia 8,770,000,000 18,000,000 United States 30,000,000

Italy 2,500,000,000 8,000,000 Banking credits in New York. . *50,000,000

Other Allies 1,580,000,000 4,000,000 Advances from Bank of Algeria 15,000,000

Total Allies $33,030,000,000 $72,000,000

Total $8,359,000,000

1H2 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

Russia.

First internal 5s at 95 on 5.35

per cent, basis $257,500,000

257,500,000
515,000,000

Second internal loan.

Third loan, five-year 5%s....

Fourth loan, ten-year, 5%s

#t 65 •=-, 515,000,000

Fifth loan, 5V2s at 95 1,030,000,000

Four per cent, bonds 309,000,000

Treasury bills, 5 per cent *2,000,000,000

Issues discounted in Eng-
land 642,886,860

Issues in France 120,896,250

Special currency loan

Loan in Japan

Three-year 6% per cent, credit
in United States

103,000,000
25,000,000

50,000,000

Total ' $5,825,783,110

Italy.

Twenty-five-year 4%s at 97....
Twenty-five-year 4%s at 95....
Twenty-five-year 5s at 97%....
English credit for war supplies.
One-year 6 per cent, notes in
United States..

$200,000,000
190,000,000
800,000,000
250,000,000

25,000,000

Total $1,405,000,000

Belgium.

From French and English Gov-
ernments $218,000,000

Japan.

Internal loan of 1914 $20,000,000

Loan to refund bonds in France 20,000,000

Total $46,000,000

Serbia.
From French Government $33,000,000

Total allied loans $27,507,754,110

Duplications 501,000,000

Net total allied loans $27,000,754,110

GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN LOANS

Germany.
First war loan 5s at 97% on 5.32

per cent, basis $1,115,000,000

Second war loan 5s at 98% 2,205,000,000

Third war loan 3,025,250,000

Fourth war loan 5s at 98% 2,007,750,000

Bank loan in Sweden 10,000,000

Note issue in United States 10,000,000

Total $9,093,000,000

Austria-Hungary.
Austrian 5%s at 97% on 0.10 per

cent, basis $433,000,000

Hungarian 6s at 97% on 6.70 per

cent, basis 237,000,000

Austrian second war loan. . 534,000,000

Hungarian second and third... 230,000,000

Austrian third war loan 815,000,000

Hungarian war loan 240,000,000

Loan from German bankers.... 113,500,000

Second loan in Germany 125,000,000

Credit in Germany 60,000,000

Total $2,787,500,000

Turkey.

First loan in Germany $108,000,000

Second loan in Germany 106,000,000

Total $214,000,000

Bulgaria.
Loan from German bankers $30,000,000

Total Central Power loans. . $12,124,500,000

Grand total war loans $39,191,254,110

NEUTRAL LOANS DUE TO WAR

Netherlands 5 per cent, internal

loan $110,000,000

Netherlands India loan 25,000,000

One-year Treasury loan 8,000,000

Rumania 4 per cent, loan from

Nat. Bank of Rumania 40,000,000

Internal loan 30,000,000

Egypt, Treasury bills 25,000,000

Switzerland internal loan 16,000,000

Internal 4% per cent. loan... 20,000,000

Notes in United States 15,000,000

Internal 4%s at 97 20,000,000

Danish 4s and 5s 28,000,000

Spanish 4y2s at par 10,000,000

Spanish 3s 14,800,000

Loan to refund bonds in

France 40,000,000

Greece from England, France,

and Russia .- . 8,000,000

Internal 5s at 88% 23,000,000

Norway internal loans 8,000,000

Notes in United States 3,000,000

Seven-year Os in United States 5,000,000

Sweden internal loans 9,380,000

Notes in United States 5,000,000

Total neutral loans $403,180,000

Grand total loans due to war.$39,054,434,110

*Estimated.

The daily cost of the war now approxi-
mates $100,000,000, of which the Allies
are spending two-thirds, or $67,000,000,
and the Teutons and Turks $33,000,000.
Probably the high rate of daily expendi-
ture has been reached. The borrowing
continues. Subscriptions are being re-
ceived for the fourth Austrian and Hun-
garian loans. Germany and France are
making ready for new forays on the
purse. England is thinking of a great
loan to refund Treasury bills and to
maintain her position as banker for her
allies. Russia, which is $3,000,000,000 be-
hind Great Britain, France, and Germany

FIFTY BILLIONS, COST OF TWO YEARS' WAR

1143

in war loans, will borrow when the time
is ripe.

SECOND YEAR'S LIFE LOSSES
Estimates of casualties based on offi-
cial data show that the second year of
the war has cost more than 3,000,000 lives
and has inflicted wounds on more than
6,000,000. Estimates for the first year
ranged between the German report of
2,500,000 slain and more than 5,000,000
wounded and Beach Thomas's estimate of
5,000,000 killed and 7,000,000 wounded.

Up to the period of the present great
offensives the British had lost in killed
or totally incapacitated 228,138 and 68,-
046 in prisoners; Germany, respectively,,
664,552 and 137,768; France, according to
Deputy Longuet, 900,000 and 300,000.
German reports of Russian casualties
amounted to 3,000,000, of whom 1,000,000
were prisoners. Austria is just now try-
ing to have her men up to 60 years en-
rolled.

SECOND TEAR'S COST

Great Britain $7,070,000,000

France 6,043,000,000

Russia 4,118,000,000

Italy 2,404,000,000

Allies' total $20,895,000,000

Germany $9,075,000,000

Austria 3,000,000,000

Turkey 2,000,000,000

Bulgaria 150,000,000

CONQUERED TERRITORY

Square
Allies Hold In— Miles.

Europe 700

Asia 52,000

The Pacific 96,160

Africa 600,000

Allies' gain 748,860

Teutons Hold In—

Belgium 11,000

France 9,000

Russia 80,000

Balkans 25,000

Teutonic gain 125,000

PRESENT EFFECTIVES

Men.

Russia r 9,000,000

France 6,000,000

Great Britain 5,000,000

Italy 3,000,000

Serbia and Belgium 300,000

Allies' total. 20,300,000

Germany 7,000,000

Austria 3,000,000

Turkey 300,000

Bulgaria 300,000

Teutonic total 10,600,000

BATTLE FRONTS

In Europe— Miles.

Western 590

Eastern 785

Italian 300

Balkan 110

In Asia, (intermittent) 750

Africa, (intermittent).. . 300

Teutonic total $14,225,000,000

Total 2,835

The War's Effects on Prices in the United

States

IT is interesting to study the European
war's effects on American prices.
Our excess of exports over imports
in the two years of war reached the
amazing total of $3,250,000,000, of which
our munition exports alone, in the twen-
ty-two months ending with May, 1916,
amounted to $458,000,000. Since then,
that is, in June, July, and August, at
least $100,000,000 must have been added
to the total. This extraordinary demand
for our products has naturally affected
prices of all commodities. In the first

few months there was uncertainty, then
there were sensational advances, followed
in time by a steady situation at a high
level, which is the present condition.
There has been a decline in acids and
heavy chemicals; for illustration, caustic
soda since January, 1916, has declined
from 5% cents a pound to 3% cents;
sulphuric acid from 3 to 1*4 cents,
bleaching powder from 13 cents to 4*£
or 5 cents, glycerine from 55 cents to
43% cents, carbolic acid from $1.40 or
$1.45 to 55 cents.

1144 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

In drugs in general there is still a
higher level of prices, as the following
comparisons indicate:

1914. 1916.

Acetanilid $0.20% $0.65

Alcohol 2.52 2.70

Borax 04% .08%

Chloroform 20 .44

Opium 7.50 11.30

Quinine 26 .61

Saltpetre 4.75 15.00

Soda benzoate 24 6.00

In the metal markets the increase has
been chiefly in copper, spelter, lead, iron,
and steel, as the following figures prove :
1914. 1916.

Pig1 iron, foundry $14.75 $19.75

Pig iron, Bessemer 14.90 21.95

Billets, forging 25.00 69.00

Billets, wire rods 24.50 55.00

Steel bars 1.15 2.50

Wire nails 1.55 2.50

Cut nails 1.55 2.GO

Barb wire 1.95 3.35

Aluminium 18 .61

Copper 13% .26%

Spelter 05 .10

Lead 039 .063

Tin 316 .37y8

Tin plate 3.49 6.24

The shortage of dyestuffs and the
restriction of immigration of foreign tex-
tile laborers have raised the price of tex-
tiles, but the expansion of business has
been considerable. Our imports of dry
goods prior to the war exceeded exports
by $150,000,000; now the balance in our
favor is $15,000,000. Exports of cotton
goods have doubled, of knit goods in-
creased eightfold, of woolen goods ten-
fold, and we have invested hundreds of
millions in dyestuff industries. The
shortage of dyes still continues, and
colorings which normally sell at 40 to 50
cents a pound are bringing $20 or $30.
As to prices, the following are the latest
comparisons:

1914. 1916.

Brown sheetings $0.08 $0.08%

Wide sheetings .30 .35

Bleached 09% .09%

Ginghams 06% .08

Prints 03% .05%

Silk 4.40 5.40

Wool 27% .38

Serge 1.20 1.67%

Cotton has had a violent advance re-
cently, and 15-cent cotton is now pre-
dicted. October cotton was selling at
14 2-3 cents during August. A sharp
advance is now expected in all cotton
goods.

Wheat has had violent fluctuations
since the war, going as high as $1.67 a
bushel in February, 1915, and as low as
99% cents in June. In August there
was a violent flurry on account of reports
of short crops, and in ten days the price
rose 20 cents a bushel, to $1.50. At the
same time flour of the baker's grade
rose $2 a barrel in the course of one
month, reaching $7.25.

Oils have had an advance, but it is said
to be due to restricted flow and not to
the war, as the exports have declined,
Petroleum exports in 1915 showed a loss
of 40,000,000 gallons. Gasoline had a
sensational advance, rising from 11 cents
a gallon to 26 cents. This is explained
as due to the increased domestic demand
and diminished production. Within the
last few weeks there has been a rapid
and sharp increase in prices of essential
oils; they nearly all come from abroad,
and shipments are very uncertain.

All household and building supplies
have advanced from 10 per cent, to 60
per cent, since the war began, and food
prices show fluctuating conditions, but
always with an upward tendency.

THE EUROPEAN WAR AS
SEEN BY CARTOONISTS

NOTE. — Owing to the constant seizure of German mail by the British blockade
patrols, CURRENT HISTORY is unable at present to obtain an equal representation
of the latest German cartoons.

[English Cartoon]

What Will His Harvest Be?

-Fi*om The Westminster Gazette.

[After a plate in Holbein's " Dance of Death."]

1145

[Italian Cartoon]

A Nocturne

— By Cesare Giris, Italian Artist.
The Birds That Follow the German Eagle.

1146

[French Cartoon]

The Emperor's Sowing

A. Roubille in the Paris Journal.

He Sows Iron Crosses, but the Crosses That Spring Up by Thousands Are

of Wood.

1147

[Italian Cartoons]

Drawings That Stirred Italy

The Murder of Nurse Cavell

— By T. Corbella.

— By Cesare
RHEIMS: An Allegory That Helped to Cause Italy to Enter the War.

1148

[English Cartoon]

The Disillusioned

—By Will Dyson, Noted English Artist.
" We were promised the earth — and are given potato tickets."

1149

[Italian Cartoon]

Communications Interrupted

— From L'Asino, Rome.

11 God don't answer any more. I'm afraid he is gone over to the Allies."

1150

[French Cartoon]

A Test of Courage

Le Eire, Paris.

" General, my little D£de asked me to kiss you."
"Well, what are you waiting for?"

1151

[Italian Cartoons]

The War Birds

The Vulture.

The Vampire.

The Screech Owl.

The Crow.
— From L'Asino, Rome.

1152

[German Cartoon]

Sleight of Hand

" Ladies and gentlemen, you see this " I cover it with a pasteboard box that
pig. Come up on the platform and con- has neither a hole in it nor a false
vince yourselves that it is alive. bottom, as you can see.

" Now I inscribe a magic formula on I raise the box
the box, and I strike it .with my en- disappeared!
chanted wand —

the pig has

"Again I put down my box, and inscribe
another formula. I wave my wand —

1153

[Italian Cartoon]

The Last Review

— From L'Asinof Rome.

The Triumph of Militarism.
1154

[French Cartoon]

The German Bastile

1155

[French Cartoon]

Another Atrocity

— Ricardo Flores in the Paris Journal.

" We Germans wish to rebuild Louvain."

" For mercy's sake, your Majesty, spare us this new crime."

1156

[Italian Caricatures]

A War Menagerie

A Kaiser

An Emperor

-Drawings by Umberto Tirelli.
A Crown Prince

[German Cartoon]

"Ungrateful Italy'

Judas Italiano in the act of betraying his
brother for 30,000,000 pieces of silver.

[American Cartoon]

Do You See Anything, Watson?

— From The Baltimore American.

1157

[French Cartoon]

The Situation

— From La Vicloire, Paris.
THE KAISER: " Oh, the scoundrels! Now they are all working at the same time!"

[English Cartoon]

A German Luxury

[French Cartoon]

Toilet of the Austrian Eagle

— From Le Temps, Paris-

— From London Opinion.

FRITZ: "How goes it this morning?" Rus,SIAJ°.,lTALY.: " Hold it tight. I'll pull

HANS : " Very well. I am just making
a sandwich for myself with a meat card
between two bread cards."

out the feathers."

1158

[English Cartoon]

La France

— From The Westminster Gazette.
[Suggested by the French Eagle at Pierrefonds.]

1159

[English Cartoon]

" Special Constables Should Use Discretion"

— (Extract from Manual.)

— From The Bystander, London.

WOMAN CONDUCTOR: "Will you deal with this man? He won't pay his fare
and he won't get off the 'bus."

SPECIAL CONSTABLE: " Er er well, how much IS his fare?"

1160

[English Cartoon]

"God Save Ireland!"

— Edmund J. Sullivan in The London Chronicle-
[Apropos of the failure of the provisional home rule settlement.]

1161

[French Cartoon]

The Hour of Punishment

The Last Trench, (Under the German Throne.)

1162

[American Cartoon] [American Cartoon]

How Long Can He Keep It Up? Qh Where and Oh Where Has

That Deutschland Gone?

[German Cartoon]

Italy's Gauntlet

[American Cartoon]

The Third Lap

— From The San Francisco Chronicle.

1163

[American Cartoon]

The End of a Perfect Year

— From The New York Times.

1164

Progress of the War

Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events

From July 12 Up to and Including

August 11, 1916

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE

July 12— British retake the whole of Mametz
Wood and repel two heavy German attacks
against Contalmaison ; Germans take
French trenches at the junction of the
Fleury and Vaux roads.

July 14— British capture German second line
from Bazentin-le-Petit to Longueval and
the whole of Trones Wood.
July 15— British cut German third line in

Faureaux Wood and reach Pozieres.
July 17— British capture 1,500 yards of Ger-
man second-line position northwest of
Bazentin-le-Petit Wood and complete the
capture of the village of Ovillers-la-
Boisselle.

July 18— British gain north of Ovillers; Ger-
mans south of the Somme gain ground
near Biaches and attack near Longueval
and Delville.
July 19— British retake half of Delville Wood

and all of Longueval.

July 20— French advance on the Somme on
front of 10% miles and capture German
first position from Estr<§es to the height
of Vermando-Villers.

July 23— British resume offensive from Po-
zieres to Guillemont.

July 2(>— British occupy whole of Pozieres.
July 27— Delville Wood taken by the British.
July 30— British move their line forward east

of Waterlot farm and Trones Wood.
Aug. 2 — French advance on three-mile front,
from the Meuse at Vacherauville as far
.east as Fleury.
Aug. 4— French reoccupy the greater part of

Fleury.

Aug. 5 — British break through German second
line north of Pozieres on a front of nearly
two miles.
Aug. 6-7— Germans defeated in counterattacks

northwest of Pozieres.

Aug. 8— British and French troops advance
300 to 500 yards on four-mile front near
Guillemont ; Germans gain near Pozieres ;
recapture Thiaumont Wood and lose part
of it again ; French take second-line
trenches on Vaux-le-Chapitre-Chenois
front.

Aug. 9— British advance 200 yards on 600-yard
front northwest of Pozieres; French gain
north of Hem Wood.

Aug. 11— French advance line to ridge south
of Maurepas on road to Hem ; British
advance near Pozidres and Bazentin-le-
Petit.

CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE

July 12— Austro-German and Russian armies

locked on the Stokhod River.
July 14— Teutonic offensive near Stobychwa,

northeast of Kovel, fails.

July 17— Part of General von Linsingen'a
army in Volhynia forced to retreat across
the Lipa River.
July 19— Russians cross the Carpathians and

advance toward Hungary.
July 20— Violent Russian offensive resumed in
the Carpathians, at Kovel, Vladimir-
Volynski, and in the Riga sector; Ger-
mans attack southwest of Lutsk.
July 21— Russians flank General von Linsin-
gen on the Styr and force him across the
Lipa at several points.

July 22— Russians pierce the German lines at
several points south of Riga; forces mov-
ing south on the railway from Delatyn
reach the Carpathian Pass.
July 2-3— Austrian forces in the Carpathians
thrown back into the Jablonitza Pass ;
Russians are within four miles of the
Hungarian frontier ; General Kuropatkin's
forces pierce Hindenburg's Riga line five
miles.
July 24— Russians advance on the Riga front

from the Gulf of Riga to Uxkull.

July 29— Russians cross the Stokhod River at

Gulevich and press the Teutons along the

entire front from the Kovel-Lutsk railway.

July 31— Russians cross the Stokhod River

on a 27-mile front in drive at Kovel.
Aug. 1— Russians in Southeastern Galicia

cross the Koropiec River.

Aug. 4— Russians advance on the Rudka-
Merynskaia railroad to the Stavok River.
Aug. 5— Russians cross the River Sereth south
of Brody and capture two villages ; Arch-
duke Charles Francis begins an attack in
the Carpathians against General Lechit-
sky's army.
Aug. 6— Russians take six villages south of

the Sereth River.

Aug. 7— Austrians reported falling back along
the Lemberg railroad from the Tarnopol
region; Russians capture more positions
south of Brody and trenches on the Stok-
hod front.

Aug. 8— Russians advance on ten-mile front

in Galicia, take Tlumach and capture

group of villages centring1 around Zalocze ;

civilians ordered out of Lemberg.

Aug. 9— Russians take Tysmienitza, push on

1166 CURRENT HISTORY: A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times

toward Stanislau and cross Koropiec
River.

Aug. 10— General Lechitsky captures Kryplin,
crosses Zlota Lipa River on the way to
Halicz; Austrians in Lemberg reinforced
by 150,000 Turks.

Aug. 11— Russians take Stanislau, pierce
General Bothmer's front in Galicia in
three places, take Monasterzyska and
compel Teutons to retire from Gliadka and
Voroblevsk; General Bothmer's right
flank retreats ^on Halicz, left also falls
back.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

July 14— Italians blow up the summit of
Cactelletto in the Tofana region.

July 15— Italians take the town of Vanzi on
Monte Hellugio.

July 19— Austrians repulsed in Pasubio sector.

July 21— Italian artillery bombards Riva,
Arco, and Rovereto in the Adige Valley
and Doberdo, Jamiano, and St. Giovanni
on the Isonzo front ; Austrians shell Mon-
falcone.

July 23— Italians advance along the Posina
line and storm Dolomite positions.

July 25— Monte Cimone captured by the
Italians.

July 29-Aug. 1— Italians repel attempts to
recapture Monte Cimone.

Aug. 2— Austrians severely defeated in at-
tacks on Italian lines at Seluggio, Castel-
letto, and Monte Cimone.

Aug. 7— Italians capture important positions
commanding communications between the
Travenanzes Valley and the Sare torrent
in the Gader Valley; Austrian attacks on
the slopes of Monte Zebio checked.

Aug. 8— Italians captured Sabotino and San
Michele Mountains and Gorizia bridgehead
in offensive begun Aug. 6.

Aug. 9— Gorizia captured by Italians ; Aus-
trians abandon nearly all principal posi-
tions on Isonzo and Carso fronts.

Aug. 10— Italians capture Boschini northeast
of Gorizia.

Aug. 11— Italians occupy whole Doberdo
Plateau, capture Rubbia and San Martino
del Carso, and reach Vallone River in
advance on 12-mile front.

BALKAN CAMPAIGN

July IS— Cannonading along the entire Salon-
iki front.

July 27— Serbs begin ' an attack on Bulgar
positions within the Greek border.

Aug. C — Serbs take the village of Pemli, near
Proska, which had been occupied by the
Bulgars.

Aug. 11 — Allies occupy Doiran station and
nearby hill.

ASIA MINOR AND EGYPT

July 12— Russians capture the town of Ma-
makhatum, fifty miles west of Erzerum.

July 1C — Russians capture Baiburt.

July 22— Russians occupy Ardasa on the Cau-
casus front; Turks advance to within
thirty miles of the Suez Canal.

July 24— Russians in Armenia advance within
fifteen miles of Erzengan ; Turks claim
victory in Persia, east of Pzancloz.

July 26— Russians capture Erzengan.

July 31— Turks advance in Egypt to a ridge
nine miles from Romani.

Aug. 3— Turks drive Russians from Sakiz and
reach Bukan.

Aug. 4— Turks attack British positions near
Romani, east of Port Said, in attempt to
reach the Suez Canal.

Aug. 5 — British defeat Turkish force at
Romani and pursue them for eighteen
miles.

Aug. 9— Russians give up Bitlis and Mush;
Turks force British cavalry to retreat
near Suez Canal.

Aug. 11— Turks force Russians to retire from
Hamadan, Persia.

GERMAN EAST AFRICA
July 14— British occupy Muanza, x>n the

southern shore of Lake Victoria.
July 22— British occupy Muheza and Amani

and capture the Usambara Railway.
July 24— General Northey defeats German

forces at Malangali and advances toward

Madibira.

NAVAL RECORD

Russia formally announced that in reprisal
for the torpedoing of the Portugal and
the Vperiode, she would attack Turkish
hospital ships.

German submarines have renewed their ac-
tivity in the war zone. Belligerents'
losses included twenty-six British, one
Japanese, four French, and six Italian
ships. In addition to these, many neu-
tral vessels have been destroyed, includ-
ing one Dutch, five Norwegian, two Fin-
nish, three Danish, six Swedish, and one
Greek. Many lives were lost in an attack
on the Italian mail steamer Letimbro.

Germans capture Danish excursion boat Ydun
with 200 children aboard.

MISCELLANEOUS

Judge Waddill of the United States District
Court held that the steamer Appam is still
the property of her British owners, but
refused a petition that she be delivered to
libella-nts. The German Government filed
a formal petition in the Supreme Court for
a new trial, giving a $2,000,000 super-
secleas bond.

The last forts of Mecca surrendered to the
Arabian rebels, who later besieged the
Turkish garrison at Medina. There were
heavy casualties on both sides.

German Government issued a revised list of
contraband and announced that German
warships were ordered to destroy all ships
carrying contraband.

D 509 .N4 v.8 SMC

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history 47086286

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